WEBVTT

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You know that church
where we were all

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having fun in the first poem.

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Well, there was a guy who
used to go to Sunday school

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with us there named George.

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His name is Johnson.

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George Johnson.

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I don't call the Johnson family
the Johnsons in this poem.

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I call them the Grubskis,
and I don't want

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to go into the reasons why.

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It has to do with tonalities and
a whole bunch of other things.

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But this is the title poem
from my forthcoming book

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that's coming out this spring.

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It's called "What They'll Love
as Well Remains American".

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Now George was an
overweight kid, kind of fat,

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and not well coordinated.

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And he couldn't play ball
with the rest of us very well,

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and he wasn't
really very bright.

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And his parents gave--

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not his parents.

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I mean, his mother.

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I never saw George's father.

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But the mother bought
trombone lessons for George.

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George took trombone lessons.

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And no way was George ever
going to play the trombone.

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I mean, after a year, he
played probably as good

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as anybody in this audience
would be playing after a couple

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weeks.

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And we used to go over
when we were little kids.

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We'd go over to
the Johnsons' house.

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And on the way, we'd
passed the house

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of a woman whose
name was Jensen.

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And I mentioned her
at the beginning

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of this poem and later.

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And we never saw her
outside the house.

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She was always just kind
of looking out the window

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and just lived
alone in this house

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and apparently never went out.

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No one even knew how she got
food in there or anything.

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But anyway, then we go up
the hill to George's place.

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And at one time,
George and his mother

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and her mother,
George's grandmother,

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lived there together.

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And one time, they suffered
from a disease that's

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called Saint Vitus Dance.

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And I don't know if
you know what that is,

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but it's just a dreadful
condition where people

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shake and flutter all the time.

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And I don't know
if that's what they

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had because some people tell
me you can't recover from this.

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But whatever they had,
George's mother did recover.

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But the grandmother never did.

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She was just shaking
all the time.

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So we were just little kids.

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We go in the house, and we'd
be sitting in the parlor there.

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And this fluttery old
woman would come in,

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and George's mother would
say, mother, why don't you

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entertain us by sitting
down and playing one

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of your original compositions.

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And this is just
what would happen.

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This old shaky
woman would sit down

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at the piano and bang
out some wretched tune

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that she'd composed herself.

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Well, you know how kids are.

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I mean, when you're
a little kid,

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you really have a
sense of the absurd.

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and we're all sitting
there, trying not to laugh.

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Just trying to hold
in this laughter.

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And we can't wait
to get outside.

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Also we're just past look
at this bizarre scene.

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Well, a couple of years
ago, for some reason,

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I hadn't thought
those people in years.

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And a couple of years ago, I
started to think about them.

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And then I started
to think about what

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had happened in my life that how
I'd loused it up so many times

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and I'd lost my coordination.

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I was too old, I couldn't
play ball anymore.

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And I never could play
a musical instrument.

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And it suddenly struck me that
somewhere, you have to admit--

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I think it's probably
good for all of us

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that someplace, we're going
to have to stop and admit

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that life reduces us all at some
period to the amateur status.

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And you're really not that much
better than George, I mean,

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when you come right down to it.

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I mean, what was the difference?

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And maybe because we were
kids, we had a right to laugh

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at what was going
on in that house.

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But as grown-ups,
we also, I guess,

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have a right to see it for the
sadness that it really was.

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And anyway, this poem
then out of all this.

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"You remember the
name was Jensen.

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She seemed old,
always alone inside.

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Face pasted gray to the
window and mail never came.

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Two blocks down, the
Grubskies went insane.

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George played rotten trombone.

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Easter when they flew the flag.

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Wild roses remind you the roads
were gravel and vacant lots

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the rule.

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Poverty was real,
wallet and spirit.

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And each day, slow as church.

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You remember threadbare
church groups on the corner,

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howling their faith at stars,
and the violent holy rollers

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renting that barn for
their annual violent sing,

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and the barn burned down
when you came back from war.

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Knowing the people you
knew then are dead,

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you try to believe these
roads paved or improved.

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The neighbors moved in
while you were away.

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Good looking, their
dogs well fed.

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You still have need to
remember lots, empty and fern.

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Well trimmed lawns remind you
of the train your wife took.

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One day forever,
some far empty town,

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the odd name you never recall,
the time 6:23, the day October

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9, the year remains a blur.

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You blame this neighborhood
for your failure.

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In some vague way, the Grubskies
degraded you beyond repair.

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And you know you must
play again and again.

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Mrs. Jensen, pale at her
window, must hear the foul music

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over the good slide of traffic.

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You loved them well
and they remain still

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with nothing to do.

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No money and no will.

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Love them and the gray
that was their disease.

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You carry for extra
food in case you're

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stranded in some odd empty
town and need hungry lovers

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for friends and
need feel you are

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welcome in the secret
club they have formed."

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[APPLAUSE]

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