WEBVTT

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Emily Dickinson.

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I have always been
suspicious of Emily.

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And--

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[LAUGHTER]

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I think it was while I was
here, one of my professors

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said that something had been
discovered to the effect

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that Emily had a little
cabin in the woods where

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she'd go for rendezvous.

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But this poem was written
before I had received

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that bit of information.

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I do admire her, of
course, as a poet.

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I'm not badmouthing
her from that angle.

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Anyway, "Last Night,
Emily Dickinson."

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"Last night, Emily
Dickinson flew over my house

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on a fried chicken liver.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Mushy grass, hair
unloosed, and her apron

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tucked up under her white knees.

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She went by teeth
bared, digging her nails

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into the fried
crust of the victual

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as if to make it scream,
cursing it in the language.

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I could not
understand for fright.

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Goats rose up
their curious heads

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all around the
horizon to see what

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had gone wrong with the world.

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Draped with damp seaweed
like bridal veils.

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Some still with tin can lids
or tough leather shoe tongues

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in their mouths and lulled.

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She shot over the dark
margin of the trees

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like a comet bound to explode.

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And then the pale light of it,
I saw their bloodless faces,

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white like the
heads of tapeworms,

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turn in an even sweep
to watch her go.

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We set our teeth, but
the explosion never came.

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So we went back to bed.

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There were only grease
spots on the window panes.

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In the imminent darkness,
like a butterfly,

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my heart tore in two."

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