WEBVTT

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And I'll end with
a few new poems

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that I've actually
never read before.

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Looking for my glasses,
which I'm wearing.

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There's water here.

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We had a very invigorating
conversation over dinner,

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and I am going to read this poem
in honor of that conversation.

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It's called "Good Greed."

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The town I live in, which
is a rich town in the summer

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because the tourism is
really suffering now

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like a lot of places--

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it's a town that almost
survives on construction

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and real estate.

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And the street I live on has
become essentially a ghost

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street.

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I mean, there are
a lot of houses

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that were built on
speculation and are empty

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and can't be sold.

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And there are a lot of
people that we knew,

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neighbors, whose properties
were bought for these houses.

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So it's a very
strange feeling to see

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this town being transformed
into this ghost town.

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Yesterday in a movie line,
a man told his cell phone

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that he was too busy to enjoy
his new house in Nantucket.

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"Yeah," he laughed, "say you're
a banker and everyone thinks

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you think greed is good."

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My ocean town depends on
real estate, construction,

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and tourism.

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It struggles now to
offer summer school,

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pick up leaves, and
keep our library open.

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More men line up each day
at the railroad station

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hoping for work to be
delivered out of hunger.

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Santos, our handyman,
owns land in Guatemala

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where he plans to retire.

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Proud of his half
acre of the future,

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he expects only
what he's earned.

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It's impossible not
to admire his ability

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to proceed with dignity.

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My father imagined a life
more satisfying than the one

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he managed to lead.

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He didn't see
himself as uneducated

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or thwarted but soon to be rich.

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Being rich, he
believed, was his right.

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I don't think there's any
such thing as good greed

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anymore than good
hate or bigotry.

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There's only our desire
to define ourselves

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by what we own and make.

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Some believe there's no such
thing as happiness, just

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precious moments of relief.

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At night in winter surrounded
by the silence of empty houses,

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I stand at my window looking for
a TV's flickering light always

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surprised to see the quaint,
brittle face of my reflection

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immersed in its one abundance.

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