WEBVTT

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OK.

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One more.

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This is the poem
from which this book

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gets its title, although it
isn't the title of the poem.

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It's a 9/11 poem,
and it's the only 911

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poem I've ever
written, fortunately--

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I think.

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A great many poets went
into complete frenzy

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of 9/11 poems, which is
to be expected, I think.

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But once I finished
this one, I was through.

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I didn't need to write anymore.

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One of the things that interests
me about the disaster of 9/11

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was the effect of technology--

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the cell phone.

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This was probably the first
major disaster in our culture

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in which people could be
talking to their loved ones

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while they were running down the
stairs of the burning building

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or while the plane
was going down.

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This, I don't think, had been
common or had been happening,

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and I fixated on it as somehow
making the tragedy even worse.

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I don't know
exactly what I would

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do under the circumstances, but
I think calling up your wife

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and telling her your plane's
going down is kind of hard.

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You have to think about it some.

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It's called "One Morning."

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This is a very rhetorical
poem, as if somebody's

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speaking over a loudspeaker
to a large group of people--

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as indeed I am, I guess.

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Who was the last person to
hear your voice on a cell phone

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from an airplane
over Pennsylvania

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or from an office in a tower
or as you were clambering down

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a thousand steps on your way to
the final seconds of your life?

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Will the last person to hear
your voice please stand?

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Will the last person to
hear your voice please

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stop screaming-- stop
remembering that you said,

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I love you and hugs
to the children,

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and everything is
going to be all right?

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As the tall buildings open
like lilies, bloom and descend,

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may the last person
to hear your voice not

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remember the passion
in your voice

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as you lied to comfort the
last person to hear your voice.

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The plane flies into the future.

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The building blossoms
on television.

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Summer is over.

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Winter is approaching,
and cold rain.

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Soon the snow will
cover everything.

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Will the last person to hear
your voice hear your voice

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again in the silence
as snow falls

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on the ground where
your ashes are mingled

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with the ashes of others in
an erasure that can never

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be erased?

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I did not witness the shocked
response to your message.

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I did not wait slumped
against the kitchen

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wall for the final
click and dial tone

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when the line went dead.

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And the last person
to hear your voice

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felt death creeping like
smoke under the door

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along the floorboards
and could not escape.

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There will be a
moment of silence.

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There will be no excuse--

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no explanation, no apology.

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Will the last person
to hear your voice

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please leave the room now
to make way for others?

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[APPLAUSE]

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