WEBVTT

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Charlie Scruggs asked me
to read this poem, which

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is called "The Huckster," which
I wrote several years ago.

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And it was about when I was a
graduate student at a Big Ten

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school and which
football was a big deal.

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They had a huge stadium
in Iowa and filled it,

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even in a losing
season, as I remember.

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And I got to sell pennants,
and souvenirs, and flowers,

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carnations, and cushions,
and cowbells to the people.

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And at the time I was a--

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I guess I was just real
nervous about a lot of--

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about being in a crowd
of people and didn't

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know how to comport myself or--

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I was just very self-conscious.

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So two things are going
on in the poem, which

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were going on in my
mind at the time,

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was I just had a desire
to be a part of the crowd,

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to be one of them, mostly
because I saw fathers

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with their little sons holding
hands coming to the game.

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And that appealed to me
in a family sort of way.

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And the other thing I was
thinking about was what--

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this is kind of
obvious, I guess,

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is why people go
to football games

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or boxing matches to see,
I guess, vicarious violence

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and to get out their home
frustrations publicly,

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someone get them out for them.

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"The Huckster.

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They're coming at me, the
people, and I like them all.

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I yell at them.

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They thrust coins in my face.

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I return cowbells, cushions
to protect their fine women,

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buttons, pennants to put
above their heads declaring,

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this is where I stand.

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Well, I say to myself,
this is where I stand.

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Somewhere a gun goes off.

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The armored men on the field
grind against each other.

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The man in the fifth
row is yelling,

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who stole my lawnmower?

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Who gave my kid a bloody nose?

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Who hustles my
wife when I'm away?

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The man on the field goes down.

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I did it.

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Thousands of fans love him up.

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Another gun goes off.

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Dogs and little kids
bunch around my feet.

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I am dizzy, stripped of my
wares, my Saturday afternoons.

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I run naked through the crowds.

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I pile into their cars.

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They feed me cold
hot dogs and beer.

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We are going home, so
many fathers and sons."

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