Sarah Kay performs "Montauk"

I am the city girl to my core the first time my parents took me outside of New York City to visit my uncle in New Jersey I was standing on the front step of his lovely suburban home when a fast-moving shadow caused my three-year-old heart to damn near beat out my chest and I shouted that's the biggest rat I've ever seen my uncle calmly responded sweetie that's a cat - which I shot back oh yeah well what's it doing outside then my parents realized there were some things you just couldn't learn in New York City so every summer we migrated out to Montauk Long Island the easternmost point of New York State my father only got two weeks off from work a year so when August rolled around we packed everything we could into the company van and followed that yellow-spotted line of highway out until we couldn't go any farther this is where I learned to swim where I heard the word for the first time from a bunch of surfers down by the beach how to ride a bike on rainy afternoon swerving around puddles how to drive a car in the hardware store parking lot how to kiss a boy with sand between my toes time goes to mom talk to take a break it loosens its belt takes a seat on the front porch next to my father and his weber grill it putters around the kitchen while my mother is kneading the dough of her homemade sourdough bread and chuckles when it catches her talking out loud to herself telling no one in particular that we should roast peaches tonight I'll bet oatmeal would be delicious tomorrow morning if we roasted some peaches tonight time stalls in Montauk I am seven years old my little brother is three he splashes in the baby pool while I braved the full-length Olympic sized one by myself shall be in my one-piece my thighs brush against each other as I tread water in the shallow end I look up to see an older girl perfect in her bikini tall and and probably on her way to meet her handsome prince charming boyfriend she glows as she glides past me tosses her hair like she has all the answers and I wonder if I'll ever be a woman like that that summer I learned how to wish on stars I am 12 years old my little brother is eight he can surf better than I can and I hate it I wait until he and all the other surfers are done for the day before paddling my fat sponge of a board out past the breakers there is no one left in the water I tuck my legs up the Setting Sun makes the water grow glow golden that summer I learned how to be alone and 16 my little brother is 12 and at the beach I am reading magazines on the couch when my mother appears in the living room holding her laptop the only computer we have in the house my little brother has downloaded his first porn video to the desktop and she is trying to figure out what should be done about it that night at dinner there is no mention of it at the dining room table but later when I go to check my email I discovered that she has made a new folder on the desktop labeled it PK's porn and left it there for him to find that summer I learned how to love my parents there are some things you cannot learn in New York City there are some places where fishnets do not mean stockings where the learning happens in between moments like after a wave passes and you break the surface gasping for air I am 22 the landmarks are the same same stretch of beach same hardware store parking lot some of the names have changed the pool hasn't I make my way to the shallow end and wade in slow in Montauk I can take my time I look up to see a little girl chubby in her one-piece watching me as I walk into the water her eyes as big as summer Tomatoes and just as red from all the chlorine rubbing I almost speak to her but before I can there's a splash behind me a woman well into her 50s chubby in her one piece has cannonballed into the deep end she comes up coughing and flailing water in her nose she comes up laughing the little girl giggles and me I am laughing too [Applause] you

Channel: speakeasynyc

Views: 107,007

Keywords: SarahKay, TaylorMali, ProjectVoice, PhilKaye, PageMeetsStage, NPS, SPokenWOrd

Id: laBWFUXe33Y

Length: 5min 19sec (319 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 27 2011