WEBVTT

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So I'm in Arizona, I had
to read this poem called

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"Gila," "The Gila Monster."

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And it was a persona poem.

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I was challenged--

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I'm betraying my own rule here.

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I don't take challenges.

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I don't take suggestions
and here I am.

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Maybe I should.

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So the challenge was to
write-- because I write poems

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mostly with people in them.

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I don't write--
usually don't write

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poems in which I personify
objects or personify animals.

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But the challenge was to do so.

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And I said I'm going to choose
this wise and ancient animal.

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"Gila."

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It's no curse dragging my
belly across the steaming sand

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all day.

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I'm as thick as a callus
that has shorn off its leg.

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If you find me, I
can explain the trail

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made by a single limb.

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I'm not a ghost,
don't be afraid.

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Though there are
ghosts here, they

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strip down to wind or slumped
against-- or slump against rock

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to evaporate.

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Sometimes I crawl beneath
the shedding, backing

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into the flesh pit for shade.

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Praise the final
moisture of the mouth,

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it's crown of teeth that
sparkles with silver or gold.

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I make a throne of the body
until it begins to decay.

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And then I'll toss the frock--

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death by hunger, death by heat--

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off the pimples of my skin.

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Don't you dare come into
my kingdom, peasant,

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without paying
respect on your knees.

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What generous act did I
commit in my previous life

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that I should be rewarded
with this paradise--

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a garden in which every
tree that takes root here

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drops its fruit eye level to me.

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