WEBVTT

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I have written a poem
called "Soft Toy," which

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has as a subject more the
disembodied voice of purpose.

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The sort of thing that Dick
King and the long dress embody

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is what I am trying
to describe in this.

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It's also very
intimately connected

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with my understanding of
the poetic impulse, which

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has a great deal
of what I believe

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about poetry and people.

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The image of the poem is of
any soft toy, any teddy bear,

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or stuffed animal that
children use and abuse

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in the process of growing up
and which they throw aside

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when they have matured.

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"I am soiled with the repetition
of your loves and hatreds

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and other experiments.

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You do not hate me
crumpled in my corner,

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you do not love me a
small heaped corpse.

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My face of beaten fur
responds as you please,

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if you do not smile,
it does not smile.

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To impatience or distaste
it answers blankness

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beyond your goodwill,
blank conviction

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beyond your
understanding or mine.

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I lie limp with use
and re-use listening

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loose ends of conversations,
hesitations, half

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beginnings that peter out
in my presence are enough.

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I understand with
a flame of shame

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or a click of ease or joy inert
knowledge into resignation.

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The process drives deeper,
grows clearer eradicating chance

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growths of desire and colder
all possibilities of desire.

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My button brown heart eyes
fix on your need to grow.

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As you crush me with tears
and throw me aside most

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they reflect but
something absorbed

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brightening in
response with energy

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to the energy of your changes.

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Clutched tightly
through the night,

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held before you ragged and
quietly crumpled as you thrust

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our thrust in dulled terror
into your opening brain I face

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the dark with eyes
that cannot close.

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The cold outermost
points of your will

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as you sleep between your--"

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