WEBVTT

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So the poems in this book
are about fathers and father

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figures, but they're also
very much about unlearning

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the education you've
been given, and then

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what happens after that.

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What do you do?

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Where do you find
your knowledge when

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you realize your education
was not that great?

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And I don't mean quality.

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I mean, I do mean
quality, but I don't mean

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pedigree, whatever that means.

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So I'll wander
around here, and I

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don't know if that gives
you sufficient context.

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"Hydrangeas"

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I found a dark bird,

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Nestled inside the
hydrangea in the backyard.

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We were alone.

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The child I was and
the bird, trembling,

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As if the wind had
crept in with us.

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But the leaves did not tremble,

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Nor those purple globes
poised over our heads.

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Something was wrong.

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That the bird could not
fly away, despite terror.

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I could not see the
house from there,

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Could not see brother or mother,

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Who was more scared.

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The leaves and I
were face to face,

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And now my sons do the
same in our city plot

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Leaves to faces,
faces to leaves,

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Each finds a space

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When smaller than the other,

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Taking turns, disappearing.

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Leaves, like giant
slapping palms,

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Like plates awaiting
bounty that never comes

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What is it about the heads?

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So many now.

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Blue in the late afternoon.

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Cut off one head,

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And look, another
bursts through.

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One brother, the
shadow of a bird.

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Another waiting his turn
to darken, to dwell.

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Every spring, I
wait for the flowers

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to unfurl, open, and rage.

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Our hydrangea blooms
white droops by June.

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My sons, my sons.

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I used to do the same
thing in hydrangeas

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With sticks, I swirl the dirt.

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I fell entire into
my own sheer silence.

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Are you hiding from me,
or hiding from each other?

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Are you taking turns
being the bird,

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Being the brother.

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