WEBVTT

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Maybe something to mix it
up a bit-- my newest book

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is made up almost
entirely of ghazals.

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And ghazals are a
North African form,

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and you have to
watch very closely,

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because they're-- or you don't
have to watch very closely,

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because they're made up
of unrelated couplets,

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or the couplets are
related metaphorically.

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I'll read a really
rank one first.

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This is a poem that's not part
of the poetry in the schools

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project.

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This is a poem, too, that--

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not to be appalling
and middle class,

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this is the poem,
that when I write it,

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I have to explain to my wife
that it's not autobiographical.

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It was written on a trout
fishing trip in Montana

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a few years back.

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It's called "Cowgirl."

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A real girl, you know.

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It's not like James
Dickey's "Sheep Child,"

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but a actual honest
to God type rodeo

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queen, not a queen, queen,
but a rodeo, rodeo queen,

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and withdrawing slowly
behind the curtains.

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Anyway, "Cowgirl," a
little short ghazal,

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or not even a true ghazal,
as Diane will remind me.

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The boots were on
the couch and had

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manure on their heels and tips.

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The cowgirl, with vermilion
udders and ears that tasted

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of cream, pulled on her Levi's.

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The saddle is not
sore in the crotch,

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with its directionless
brain, is pounded by hammers.

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Less like flowers than
grease fittings, women

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win us to the life of
holes, their negative space.

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I don't know you and won't.

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You look at my hairline while
I work, conscious of history

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in a bottomless lake.

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Thighs that are indecently
strong and have won the West.

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I'll go back home
where women are

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textured as marshmallows there.

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