WEBVTT

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As long as I'm in that
area, I'm a divided man

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who have moved from the
Midwest, as many as you know,

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to the West.

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I'm sure there are many here.

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It's a shame.

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From Chicago to
Seattle is a long,

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long way spiritually, mentally,
physically in every way.

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First, from about
the other place,

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this next poem is
a literal memory

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of the '30s in that railhead
just outside of the Chicago

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City limits.

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It's called "Bums At Breakfast."

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"Daily, the bums sat down
to eat in our kitchen.

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They seemed to be
whatever the day was like.

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If it was hot or cold,
they were hot or cold.

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If it was wet, they
came in dripping wet.

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One left his snowy
shoes on the back foot,

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but his socks stuck
to the clean linoleum.

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And one, when my mother
led him to the sink,

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wrung out his hat instead
of washing his hands.

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My father said
they'd made a mark

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on the house, a hobo's sign on
the sidewalk, pointing the way.

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I heard it everywhere
but never found it.

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It must have said, it's
only good in the morning

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when the husband's out.

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My father knew by heart Lectures
on Thrift and Doggedness,

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but he was always either
working or sleeping.

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My mother didn't
know any advice.

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They ate their food
politely with old hands

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not looking around and spoke
in short, plain answers.

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Sometimes, they said what
they've been doing lately

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or told us what was wrong.

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But listening hard, I
broke their language

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into secret codes.

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Their east meant west.

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Their job meant
walking and walking.

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Their money meant danger.

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Home meant running and hiding.

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Their father and mother were
different kinds of weather.

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Dumbly, I watched them
leave by the back door,

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their pockets empty
as a 10-year-old,

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yet they looked twice as
rich, being full of breakfast.

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I carried mine like a lump
all the way to school.

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When I was growing hungry,
where would they be?

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None ever came twice,
never to lunch or dinner.

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They were always starting
fresh in the fresh morning.

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I dreamed of the day it
stopped at the beginning."

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