WEBVTT

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I have written a lot of poems
about-- some poems about dogs.

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I write poems where the
dog just wanders in.

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And there's not too many
solid pieces of advice

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you can give to younger people
who want to write poetry,

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but one of them I
try to tell them,

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just to have them come
in once in a while.

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It will just be a
temporary relief

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from your self-absorption.

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But it's very tricky advice
because, to write about dogs,

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leads down the path to
sentimentality very quickly.

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And I've been guilty of
that in a number of poems.

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But I set out, in this
poem, to write a poem

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about a dog that would be
completely unsentimental.

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And the poem is
called "The Revenant,"

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that means just a
ghost who visits you.

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"The Revenant."

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"I am the dog you
put to sleep as you

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like to call the
needle of oblivion,

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come back to tell you
this simple thing--

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I never liked you.

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When I licked your
face, I thought

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of biting off your nose.

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When I watched you
toweling yourself dry,

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I wanted to leap and
unman you with a snap.

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I resented the way
you moved, your lack

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of animal grace, the way you
would sit in a chair to eat,

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a napkin on your lap
and knife in your hand.

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I would have run away,
but I was too weak.

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A trick you taught me while I
was learning to sit and heal

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and, greatest of insults,
shake hands without a hand.

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I admit, the sight of the
leash would excite me,

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but only because it meant
I was about to smell things

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you had never touched.

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You do not want to believe this,
but I have no reason to lie.

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I hated the car,
hated the rubber toys,

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disliked your friends,
and worst, your relatives.

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The jingling of my
tags drove me mad.

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You always scratched
me in the wrong place.

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All I ever wanted from you
was food and fresh water

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in my metal bowls.

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While you slept, I
watched you breathe

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as the moon rose in the sky.

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It took all of my strength
not to raise my head and howl.

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Now, I am free of the collar,
free of the yellow raincoat

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monogrammed sweater, the
absurdity of your lawn.

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And that is all you need to know
about this place except what

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you've already supposed and are
glad it did not happen sooner,

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but everyone here
can read and write--

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the dogs in poetry, the cats
and all the others in prose.

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