WEBVTT

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Those of you like Eliana, who
have generously taken the time

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to study my first
two books, will

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know that I have a very
soft place in my heart

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for yerberos, people who
study herbs and plants

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for traditional healing.

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And when I was in Cuba, I got
to meet this wonderful gentleman

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behind the counter.

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And he was missing half
an ear and he had a limp

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and he had a perpetual cough.

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And there he was
dispensing these herbs

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and telling me that he hadn't
seen a doctor in 25 years.

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He looked like he was
at death's door, right?

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And so I tried and I tried to
get some of that in the poem.

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The poem ended up a completely
different kind of poem.

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But anyway, that's the
picture that I have of him.

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At first, he was a little weary,
but I said, well, you know,

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I'm perfectly willing to stand
here until you have the time

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to talk to me.

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Well, by the end, he was
checking my spelling.

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And I would be writing and he'd
say, no, no, no, no, no, no,

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no, you know.

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And then he said, don't you
want to take my picture?

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And so I said, well, sure.

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And I have this
wonderful picture.

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He looks like Miss America.

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He picked up this big
batch of flowers like this

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and he's smiling.

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So he's someone that
I'll always remember.

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Don Jaime.

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Lame, only 1 and 1/2 years,
raspy cough, but down the road,

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he shuffled in the silent dawn.

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His grandson dragging
a large basket

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for gathering cures growing wild
on the Monte outside Havana.

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Cures tasting of bark and root,
salvia, verbena, porton de oro.

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Flowers yellow as canaries,
boiled into hot perfume

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irresistible as honey.

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Dizzying butterflies
that doze on the baskets

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and bodies of healers.

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Harvests of faith by
calloused hands that rest

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in the rustle of leaves.

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Hand us ancient teas,
pale green steam,

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which if inhaled
with closed eyes,

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makes us wonder
where we've been.

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