WEBVTT

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I'd like to read a
new poem, which is

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in the voice of Mary Magdalene.

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We don't know much about Mary
Magdalene except a very, very

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few references to her.

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In one of the references
it says, it's from Luke,

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chapter 8, verse 2,
where he refers to Mary,

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called Magdalene from whom
seven devils had been cast out.

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So this is a poem where Mary
talks about what those seven

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devils are.

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She's talking to us.

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"Magdalene and
the Seven Devils."

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The first was that
I was very busy.

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The second, I was
different from you.

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Whatever happened
to you could not

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happen to me, not like that.

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The third, I worried.

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The fourth, envy
disguised as compassion.

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The fifth was that I refused
to consider the quality of life

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of the aphid.

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The aphid disgusted
me, but I couldn't

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stop thinking about it.

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The mosquito too.

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Its face.

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And the ant, its
bifurcated body.

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OK, the first was
that I was so busy.

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The second that I might make
the wrong choice because I

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had decided to take
the plane that day,

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that flight, before noon
so as to arrive early,

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and I shouldn't
have wanted that.

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The third was that if I
walked past a certain place

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on the street the
house would blow up.

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The fourth was that I was
made of guts and blood

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with a thin layer of
skin lightly thrown

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over the whole thing.

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The fifth was that the dead
seemed more alive to me

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than the living.

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The sixth, if I touched my right
arm I had to touch my left arm,

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and if I touched the left arm
a little harder than I'd first

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touch the right then I
had to retouch the left,

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and then touch the right
again so it would be even.

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The seventh, I knew
I was breathing

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the expelled breath of
everything that was alive

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and I couldn't stand it.

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I wanted a sieve, a mask.

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I hate this word,
cheesecloth, to breathe

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through that would trap it.

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Whatever was inside
everyone else that

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entered me when I breathed in.

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No, that was the first one.

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The second was
that I was so busy.

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I had no time, how
did this happen?

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How had our lives
gotten like this?

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The third was that
I couldn't eat food

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if I really saw it distinct,
separate from me, in a bowl,

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or on a plate.

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OK, the first was
that I could never

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get to the end of the list.

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The second was that the
laundry was never finally done.

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The third was that
no one knew me,

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although they thought they did.

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And then if people thought of me
as little as I thought of them,

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then what was love?

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The fourth was that I
didn't belong to anyone

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I wouldn't allow myself
to belong to anyone.

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The fifth was that
I knew none of us

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could ever know
what we didn't know.

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The sixth was that
I projected myself.

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The sixth was that I
projected onto others

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what I myself was feeling.

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The seventh was
the way my mother

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looked when she was dying.

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The sound she made, the
gurgling sound, so loud

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we had to speak louder to
hear each other over it.

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And then I couldn't
stop hearing it.

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Years later, grocery
shopping, crossing the street.

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No, not the sound.

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It was her body's
hunger finally evident.

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What our mother had
hidden all her life.

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For months I dreamed of
knuckle bones and roots,

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the slabs of sidewalk
pushed up like crooked teeth

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by what grew underneath.

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The underneath.

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That was the first devil.

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It was always with me.

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And then I didn't think
you, if I told you,

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would understand any of this.

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[APPLAUSE]

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