WEBVTT

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This poem is called "This
Bottle Belonged to Carlota,"

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and I will explain a
couple of things in it.

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Gump's is a well-known
antique art object

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store in San Francisco,
mostly oriental.

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Carlota is the wife of the
Emperor of Mexico who--

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she went mad after her husband
was slain by the Mexicans.

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Grasshopper Hill is the English
translation for Chapultepec.

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And Clarence, to whom I
ostensibly wrote the poem,

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runs a little store that I
call the Gump's of Bernalillo.

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He vacillates between
moments of great machismo

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and utter femininity,
and I love him.

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"Clarence, who owns the
Gump's of Bernalillo,

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gave me a green-white
onyx bottle,

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which he said that shattered
Empress carried in her flight

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from Mexico to France.

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The perfume in that
bottle bled all

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over the frivolous satins and
the betrayed crystal heart.

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Clarence flew into
a rage when I said

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I didn't quite believe his
tale about the ownership

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of that fine bottle.

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'I'm in the antique
business,' he announced.

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'I don't live by
selling stories,

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a legend with each purchase.

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I admit quite frankly that I
stretch the truth sometimes.

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So do you.' He
flounced a peacock fan,

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and I sat obediently to hear how
Carlota flourished it at some

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fantastic supper or such ball
when Maximilian was Emperor

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and she his bride.

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She touched an earlobe
with this stopper,

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dreaming, practicing a
gesture that we caught

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when the mad summer's
mirror illuminated the cameo

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profile across
the insane century

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since she turned into rain.

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Carlota flutters up
the Grasshopper Hill--

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a moth with gauzy fans--

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hovers by the carriage shed
where that pomp and splendored

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husband met the firing squad.

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She drowns in ceremonial scent.

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Clarence, you're correct.

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The bottle's spiked
with madness,

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and ritual moments
of old perfume fan

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through our breathless bones.

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A myth comes with its
fragrant truth intact,

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a stony bottle with
its perfume gone."

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