WEBVTT

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And then I'm going to
finish on two poems.

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So one of the things that I try
and write a little bit about

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is having a brother
who's a meth addict,

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and how my family has dealt
with that and what that means.

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And I think something
that's important for you

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younger writers to know
is that a lot of times,

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I mean, if we tell somebody,
oh, this is what happened,

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and it was awful
and it was painful.

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It's not going to mean
anything to your reader.

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And so sometimes you
have to find images

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even if the images don't
make sense right away,

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but you try and find the
images from your daily life,

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and you make them mean
something a little bit more.

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And so this is an
example of a poem

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that's a little bit surreal.

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So it's not going to be
realistic images you're

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used to seeing.

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But it's my way of trying to
explain watching my brother act

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the way he acts when he's doing
some of the things he does.

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"My brother, my wound".

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He was calling in the
bulls from the street.

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They came like a dark river.

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A blur of chest and hoof.

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Everything moving
under splinter.

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Hooked their horns
through the walls.

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Light hummed the holes
like yellow jackets.

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My mouth was a nest torn empty.

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Then he was at the table,
then in the pig's jaws.

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He was not hungry.

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He was stop.

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He was bad apple.

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He was choking.

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So I punched my fist
against his stomach.

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Mars flew out and broke
open or ballooned.

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How many small red
eyes shut in that husk?

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He said, look,
look, and they did.

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He said, lift up
your shirt and I did.

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He slid his fork
beneath my ribs.

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Yes, he sang, a
Jesus side wound.

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It wouldn't stop bleeding.

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He reached inside and
turned on the lamp.

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I never knew I was also a lamp
until the light fell out of me,

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dripped down my thigh, flew
up in me, cut in my throat

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like a canary.

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Canaries really
means dogs, he said.

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He put on his shoes.

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You started this with
your mouth, he pointed.

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Where are you going?

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I asked.

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To ride the Ferris
wheel, he answered.

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And climbed inside
me like a window.

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