WEBVTT

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Well, just to get rid
of the perverse poems,

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I'll read one more--

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[LAUGHTER]

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--that fits in with it.

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It's a poem called "Tricks."

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And I dedicated to the poem
to some friends of mine, Jon

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and Barbara Anderson,
and Barbara asked me--

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they couldn't figure
out why it was

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dedicated to them because
it's such a perverse poem.

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But the--

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[LAUGHTER]

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The attitude in the poem is
of a gentle humor, I think.

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And it was something that I felt
was taught to me by those two

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friends.

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It's called "Tricks."

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It's about being
around people who

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are driven by some eccentricity
and can't sort of learn

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themselves out of it, I guess.

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"Tricks."

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"Who can sleep with
so much pain around?

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I waved goodbye to the loveless.

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Asleep and waking,
dreaming of me.

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From the insomniac sadist
who prowls an empty room,

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I steal his whip to tease him.

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I pinch his fanny and leave.

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In the subway, I toss a
kiss to the exhibitionist

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and close my eyes for
who can change character?

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Who but the devious priest
will bruise his knees

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for those whose lives
are limited by pain?

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They will not learn.

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The amateur whore
and the lonely clerk

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who refuses the
joys of flirtation

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sit separately in
the park and brood.

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I send anonymous love notes.

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I offer desire with Vaseline and
roses with thorns for who else

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will play tricks with
love in his heart?

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Today, I marry a widow,
and tomorrow, a man.

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And tonight, in a tavern, I
meet a reluctant poet whose

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penis is smaller than mine.

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I refuse to measure
for that as his lot.

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In another mood, I might
tell the right lie and guide

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their worst fears to
the edge of madness

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and push and wait at
the bottom with my net.

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There is something at the
same time pursues and leans

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inside me.

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It is my other half.

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When I weep the bitter
tears, it laps them up

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and laughs and lies down
tired and refreshed.

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Each night, I plunge to the
limits of heart's desire

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and stroke its belly and count
the stars circling my head.

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On off nights, it digs
a hole in my right hand

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and says, love thyself.

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Who else has the time?"

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OK.

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Let me change the
mood a little bit.

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