WEBVTT

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The next poem is called "The
Rabbit Fights For His Life,

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The Leopard Eats Lunch."

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It comes from-- there is a
picture in Life magazine.

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One of these two page spreads
was an article on leopards.

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And there's a series of
pictures of the leopard chasing

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a baboon.

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And at the last
second-- the spread

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was, the last second the baboon
turns around and faces him.

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And he's screaming at him.

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He's got this horrible
expression on his face,

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and the leopard
just looking at him.

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And I was fascinated by it.

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Hung it up on my
wall, and finally I

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realized what it was,
was that the baboon was

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fighting for his life and the
leopard was just eating lunch.

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And then it turns out
there is an old German folk

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story that says the
same thing, and it's

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a rabbit instead of a baboon.

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So I changed it.

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The children in the
poem I refer to,

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are college aged
student children.

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"What if the revolution
comes and I'm in it?

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And my job is to murder
a child accidentally,

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or afterwards to get
rid of the policeman.

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I had a milkshake last
week with a policeman.

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We talked about his pay raise.

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It eats shit, he told me,
what if I have that one?

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Savage.

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The baby was easy.

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The baby went up in thin air.

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I remembered
industriously asking,

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when they talked about
whether it would all be

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worth the death of one child.

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And you decided yes or no
according to your character.

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My character is how
he got back in his car

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like a tired businessman,
and listened to the radio

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for a few minutes and waved.

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It's having to lug
him everywhere I go,

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because I can't take him to
his wife crying like this.

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The children have learned to
throw their arms around you

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without meaning it.

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To kiss you without feeling it.

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To know there is
something marvelous,

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and not pay attention.

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In order to say any
of this at all to you,

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I've made myself up like
somebody in a novel.

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In order not to
go out of my mind,

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I make it I can only do two
things, hold you, bury you."

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