WEBVTT

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This was also written
at about the same time.

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And it's called "The
Policeman and the Drunk".

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It's a fairly short poem
but it's in two sections.

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The first establishing
the identity

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of the policeman, the second
where he encounters a drunk

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who's passed out.

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And I guess the writing
of it came out of a desire

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to think my way into a
policeman's head walking alone

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on a beat.

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And perhaps to have some
sympathy for the policeman

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and the drunk.

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He belongs to
someone else tonight.

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He walks his beat like a
stranger in his own town.

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He never understood the
weather coming down on him

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for no reason or his
wife who sleeps alone.

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Everyone's light goes out.

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He knows he would walk
all night across the city

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to find a friend.

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He turns the man
over with his club.

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Bored but certain as a wife, he
rubs the stubble on the cheek

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as if it were his own face
waking in the afternoon.

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The gray buildings press on him.

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Cold and shapeless, he lets his
arms fall his body bend down

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toward the man.

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He wants to be cared for.

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He would kiss him, he
thinks, if he were not a man.

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The drunk stirs, stares up and
wonders if this is not his wife

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or death kneeling over
as always frowning,

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confused, uttering
strange cooing sounds.

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