WEBVTT

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And in the spirit
of Godzilla, and I

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guess it's the poem that they're
responding to when they put

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Godzilla on the
cover, I don't know

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how you are but I have ideas.

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I have things come
to my mind sometimes

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that like, what would it be
like to interview Godzilla?

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What would you ask him?

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And so this poem's called
"Questions for Godzilla."

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What of the atom
split heart we made

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for you and the godly flashbang
wrath, the anguished song,

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the clawed gate, the
zipper by which one of us

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slips into and puts you on?

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Your death we dangle
like a carrot,

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you're stunted son
mewling always,

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your ragged arch foes,
your bed in rock, in magma,

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in thick sea slime.

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Our fascination still,
our morbid heart

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are scattering like leaves, our
blood that once was horrible,

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a technicolor ichor.

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What of the glowing spine?

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What of the toy stings
of stock footage flames?

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What of the jets
you swatted dead

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from the air with
unmistakable joy?

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You of the plastic leather,
pebbled Plasticine flesh,

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you of the palsy fury, you of
the put upon by the semblares

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and disturbers.

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You, what of the life
burns so cheaply into

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celluloid we are charmed?

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What of autumn?

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What of the Earth
we took you from?

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What of the skies wounded
throb, the sallow child

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darkened in your shadow?

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What of those 1,000 fates cut
in coiling ribbons to the floor?

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What of the heaven
they hoped on that

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glowed like your breath that
sang only before you came

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that fell quiet like a feather.

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What of the shouted
orders, the dread retreat,

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the fall of a world
built to scale?

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What is pain to you?

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Which, it reminds me, Ander,
and you may not remember this,

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but when my first book came out
and I think you were using it

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in a class or something and
the student who had clearly

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not really read the
book and wasn't aware

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that I was disabled, I came
and she'd come into class

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and she's like, why is he
always talking about pain?

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What does he know about pain?

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And you're like,
well actually he's--

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you know the guy in the
wheelchair who teaches here?

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That's him.

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And I loved that story
ever since you told me.

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So I came in and did a
reading in your class

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and I wanted to get a
t-shirt made that says

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"what does he know about pain?"

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and wear it to the class
but I didn't because that

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would be bad.

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It would be bad, right?

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So so, all right.