WEBVTT

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And from that thing--

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no, the next section.

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Yeah, a poem written after
a cross-country flight.

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It's called "Topography."

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After we flew across the
country, we got in bed.

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Laid our bodies delicately
together, like maps

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laid face to face, East to West.

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My San Francisco
against your New York,

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your Fire Island
against my Sonoma.

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My New Orleans deep in
your Texas, your Idaho

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bright on my Great Lakes.

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My Kansas burning
against your Kansas.

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Your Kansas burning
against my Kansas.

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Your Eastern Standard Time
pressing into my Pacific Time.

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My Mountain Time beating
against your Central Time.

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Your sun rising
swiftly from the right.

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My sun rising swiftly
from the left.

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Your moon rising
slowly from the left.

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My moon rising slowly
from the right.

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Until all four bodies of
the sky burning above us,

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sealing us together.

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All our city is twin cities.

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All our states united,
one nation, indivisible,

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with liberty and
justice for all.

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I was invited to give a reading
in Washington at an official,

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they said, do you have a
patriotic poem like this?

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Yeah.

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They liked it too.

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They like that stuff.

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Take the flag into a [INAUDIBLE]
American flag, you know.

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And I'll read two poems from
the last section of the book.

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