WEBVTT

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So I'll conclude by
reciting some love poems.

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I never think of
myself as a love poet

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because, when I was
writing as a young man,

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all my love poems turned
out to be absolute slush

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so I threw them all away.

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And by the time I
started to write them,

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I was long married so most
of these are about marriage.

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[FROM AUDIENCE] Oh, boy.

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[CHUCKLE]

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This one is called
"Love Song, I and Thou."

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"Love Song, I and Thou."

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Nothing is plumb,
level, or square.

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The studs are bowed.

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The joists are shaky by nature.

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No piece fits any other piece
without a gap or a pinch,

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and bent nails dance all over
the surfacing like maggots.

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By Christ, I am no carpenter.

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I built the roof for myself,
the walls for myself,

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the floors for myself, and
got hung up in it myself.

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I danced with a purple
thumb at this house-warming,

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drunk with my prime
whiskey, rage.

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Oh, I spat rage's nails into
the frame-up of my work.

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It held.

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It settled plumb,
level, solid, square,

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and true for that great moment.

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Then it screamed
and went on through,

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skewing as wrong the other way.

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God damned it.

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This is hell.

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But I planned it.

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I sawed it.

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I nailed it.

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And I will live in
it until it kills me.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I can nail my left palm through
the left-hand crosspiece,

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but I can't do
everything myself.

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I need a hand to nail the right,
a help, a love, a you, a wife.

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[AUDIENCE MURMURING]

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