WEBVTT

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Here's another poem
with an epigraph.

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The epigraph is, "change
my life, make it right,"

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it's from Crosby,
Stills and Nash.

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The title of the
poem is "Denials:

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for the Student Dead."

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"Tonight, final as a
metal boot, the dark swan

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has settled on the lawn.

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His bones crackle
like distant shots

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in the unusual human position,
and he surprises the children

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by speaking.

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The hoarse sounds
from his long throat

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are understandable,
though whining as denials.

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He tells the children
to run, he'll

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take the slowest away with him.

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We watch.

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The children scatter
but the black wings

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unfold faster than we could
have believed he flies.

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Be my lady, it could be
a child's voice coming

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through a cardboard tube.

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The wings close over
a girl who falls.

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Sad, already prepared
to deny that it

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happened, we turn thinking
the game is over, when we hear

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screams.

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The next day, we are
still drunk with mourning.

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We wander the
grounds like chairs

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in a yard under an ordinary sky.

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A grandmother on the
curb holds a boy.

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Too late she sings for the day.

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As always, love is
rocking the country.

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[APPLAUSE]

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