WEBVTT

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There's another form.

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It's very difficult to describe.

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It's a kind of narrative that
I hope explains itself just

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as a short story would, I hope.

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It's called "Getting
Out of Jail on Monday."

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"I'm going into the building.

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He's coming out.

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It's city property where
official cement pours sideways

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up and down out of the windows.

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I'm paying fine for driving
and walking crooked,

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and he's getting out of
jail on a fine morning,

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singing and waving,
just walking away.

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As if he'd sung my
name, I turn and follow

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this husky bow-legged
upright, sockless

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Indian, who's singing, going
downhill straight as an arrow.

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He's chanting deep
in his throat.

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His mouth hangs open
like that tavern doorway.

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Stomping, he sings against it
as harsh and sharp as the wind

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through underbrush.

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The sun is sunny side up.

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Swatches of sky are glancing
down from the windows

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around us.

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The gutter's a foot away.

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The secretaries are sharpening
the corners of their eyes.

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The boards are busy upstairs.

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Good signatures are
flourishing at the business

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ends of letters.

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And the Indian goes
inside like a parade.

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Me too.

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I buy him a beer.

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He sings around it, staring at
me with flat, obsidian eyes,

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then drinks it aloud.

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The sun is over easy.

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I buy another.

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We down it against the clock,
which is prying the hour apart

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with its bare hands.

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All over town, the
time-vaults are yawning open.

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They disengage their
polished, case-hardened teeth

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from the dark strikes
that bolted them all home.

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The money is rolling
out into the morning

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after a breathless
weekend in the tank.

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The jukebox crackles
and burns in the corner.

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I give him my necktie.

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He threads it like a
belt and hikes his pants,

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cinching himself tight.

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We try to imagine
not being arrested

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till the end of the week.

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I tell him about work, and
we drink to cinches tighter

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than our luck.

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Outside, the sun is
a raw egg and a beer,

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and the cars and cabs
are jerking around noon.

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From this enormous
distance, you have

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to shout to make yourself heard.

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You have to pay a fine
for singing or shouting

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crooked at a machine.

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With five days off and
two in a safe place,

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we're like an investment.

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The Indian backs me up.

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He backs me up against
the front of the tavern

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and does a dance with
his hair in his face.

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I explain to people guttling
around him what he means.

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He means he's working at
dancing through the week

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and staring at the
burnt insides of eyelids

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with a stomach full of
the city and no socks.

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Machines are creaking,
mimeograph Tuesdays.

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Tuesdays are sticking
to Wednesdays.

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They're running off Thursdays
in case of increased demand.

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But Fridays go blank, and trying
to see Friday west of Monday

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takes an Indian's eye.

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It's over the brow of the
hill like the US cavalry

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with its spit and tarnish.

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And suddenly dancing,
I'm Big Medicine.

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I prophesy nothing is going to
work till it sings for itself.

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Hundreds of want ads are
flying from Pioneer Square

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to Puget Sound like seagulls.

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The beat of thunderbird is
breaking on killer whale.

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We all light up in the
rain, and it puts us out.

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The sun is scrambling off.

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The Indian rattles away
through a strange language.

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Slowly, my arches sink
back to the pavement.

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My hair sits down, my chin
warps shut like a drawer.

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I put the touch on
myself and start uphill,

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a solid citizen going
to pay on time."

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[APPLAUSE]

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