WEBVTT

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And the last poem I'm going to
read is called "Self-Portrait."

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"They no longer hold any hope.

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I'll fulfill my early promise.

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It's apparent now.

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I won't be president of a
local bank, the United States,

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the regional sawdust factory,
the Junior Chamber of Commerce,

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the rotary, or even a
respectable member thereof.

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Very early, I thought I might
succeed the Durango kid.

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My profile wouldn't
take close-ups. Summers

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at the beach, I dug pits in
the sand, waited for the Japs.

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But they never came.

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A hot bath on Sunday,
a clean sailor suit.

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The pants were short.

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And I never went to see
fantasies of lingerie and Kotex

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boxes, the imagined
purpose of women.

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We played doctor.

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Of course, I was
always the patient.

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I fumbled my way into knowledge
on a rainy night in November.

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I was scared.

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She insisted.

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The windshield fogged.

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Nothing mattered.

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At 17, Europe, the grand
tour, a little Polish,

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a little savoir-faire.

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I told dirty jokes in
ancient cathedrals,

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demanded spaghetti in Rome,
told a whore in London

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I had a season ticket.

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I've regretted it ever since.

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At 14, I climbed the
tallest mountain in Wyoming.

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An astonishing feat.

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My mother worried,
everyone was proud.

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They sold my ice axe and boots.

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I aspired to be an engineer.

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I passed geometry, promising
not to take solid and trig.

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I come from an endless
line of self-made men.

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Everywhere I look,
opportunities and boredom.

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I can try formalities
to order my life.

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Experience dribbles
through my fingers.

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I can't focus on
the forms before me.

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The ceilings, no roof.

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The walls, no boundary.

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My name belongs to a stranger.

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I've been led astray
by battered music.

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And even my respectable novel
wanders away into broken lines.

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I'm given to fits of idleness.

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Here is my biography.

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This is the section
with pictures.

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See?

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That's me, the one with a hat.

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Here I am with my Gladstone
bag, the one who's smiling

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that rubber beach toy smile."

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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