WEBVTT

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Let's see, I just
ought to end about now

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but I'll read a couple more.

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"Football With the
Sound Turned Off."

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[APPLAUSE]

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While I was writing this poem I
couldn't stop watching football

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on television , as soon as I
finish the poem I can't look

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at it anymore.

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"Football With the
Sound Turned Off."

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"As basketball
players love leaping

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and the sound of the ball
swishing through the net,

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football players love the ground
crashing against each other

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and falling into body piles.

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Watched by millions on an
immense field, the tackle,

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reaches out for the
runner pulling him down

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in his embrace.

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Then camera up
close, the whole team

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falls on top of them
lying their body on body

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until at a signal
from the referee

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they untangle in slow motion.

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The ball they use can only be
caught by hands like magnets

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receiving the odd
roundness of it,

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a perfect fit just as they
cannot resist patting each

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other smoothly
uniformed behinds.

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With their bodies
they batter their way

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through a field of obstacles,
flesh bruising flesh colliding

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with electric shocks of feeling
that they must fling aside

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to strive for the victory
of a lonely touchdown.

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Playing by the rules with
referee on field and coaches,

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managers, and owners sitting
on guard on the sidelines they

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still snatch moments of the
forbidden when after a score

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the camera eye slides away
from the players hugging

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and the continual slapping
of asses to the fans

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milling in the bleachers.

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Watching this silent ballet of
body joy, long shots giving in

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to close up views, I let
the sharks pulse through me

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as bodies meet in violent
contact, my appetite judging

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my life and world
where we are deprived

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of the real and
affectionate touching

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each other that we hunger for."

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