WEBVTT

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So in my wanderings from
Brooklyn to Puerto Rico,

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somehow I ended up in Wisconsin.

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Actually, I originally
went there to go to school.

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I thought that Wisconsin was
where Oregon is, went there

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for the ocean.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I was very disappointed there,
and I hit some hard times.

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And hard times are harder, I
think, when it's that cold.

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And so finally, I had run
out of money and luck,

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and was certified officially
destitute by the social service

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agency of my choice.

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And I was sent to a charity
called St. Vincent de Paul--

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St. Vinnie's-- for
some free food.

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And while there, the
following incident occurred.

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The poem is called "The St.
Vincent de Paul Food Pantry

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Stomp," Madison,
Wisconsin, 1980.

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"Waiting for the carton of food
given with Christian suspicion,

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even to agency-certified
charity cases like me,

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thin and brittle as
uncooked linguine,

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anticipating the factory-damaged
cans of tomato soup, beets,

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three-bean salad in
a welfare cornucopia,

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I spotted a squashed
dollar bill on the floor.

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And with a St. Vincent de Paul
food pantry stomp, pinned it

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under my sneaker, tied
my laces meticulously,

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and stuffed the bill in my sock
like a smuggler of diamonds,

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all beneath the
plaster statue wingspan

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of St. Vinnie, who was unaware
of the dance named in his honor

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by a maraca shaker in the
salsa band of the unemployed."

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[LAUGHTER]

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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