WEBVTT

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I would like to read something
about those other inhabitants,

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the animals.

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We share this planet with
a lot of things, including

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other sentient beings.

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This is called
"Rabbits and Fire,"

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and it's about
that time of year.

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"Everything's been said but one
last thing about the desert,

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and it's awful-- during brush
fires in the Sonoran desert,

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brush fires that happened before
the monsoon and in the great,

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deep, wide, and smothering
heat of the hottest months,

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the longest months,
the hypnotic,

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immeasurable lulls
of August and July--

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During these summer
fires, jackrabbits--

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jackrabbits and
everything else that

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lives in the brush
of the rolling hills,

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but jackrabbits especially--

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jackrabbits can get
caught in the flames,

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no matter how big and strong
and fast and sleek they are.

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And when they're
caught, cornered

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in and against the thick
trunks and thin spines

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of the cactus, when they
can't back up any more, when

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they can't move, the flame--

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it touches them, and
their fur catches fire.

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Of course, they run
away from the flame,

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finding movement even when
there is none to be found,

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jumping big and high
over the wave of fire,

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or backing even harder through
the impenetrable tangle

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of hardened saguaro and prickly
pear and cholla and barrel,

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but whichever way they find,
what happens is what happens--

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they catch fire and then
they bring the fire with them

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when they run.

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They don't know they're on
fire at first, running so fast

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as to make the fire
shoot like rocket engines

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and smoke behind them, but then
the rabbits tire and the fire

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catches up, stuck onto
them like the needles

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of the cactus, which at
first must be what they

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think they feel on their skins.

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They've felt this
before, every rabbit.

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But this time the
feeling keeps on.

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And of course, they
ignite the brush

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and the dried weeds all over
again, making more fire,

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all around them.

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I'm sorry for the rabbits.

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And I'm sorry for
us to know this.

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[APPLAUSE]

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