WEBVTT

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I want to read one other poem
from Song in a Strange Land

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before reading something
from The Donner Party.

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When I was a student, I thought
I wanted to be a lawyer.

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I was a pre-law political
science student.

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And this is about that time.

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It's called "The
Superior Court."

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"I wanted to study
law until I listened

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to the sessions of the superior
court for Durham County

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and heard the prosecuting
attorney address

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the jury in the comfortable
tone of a man talking

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to his friends, to men and
women who might remember days

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when he played baseball,
people who had seen

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his picture in the paper
when he was awarded

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his degree on leaving
law school and later read

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the report of his wedding.

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The defense attorney
told the judge

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that he was sorry
to appear to plead

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for many of these people
who had promised in the past

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to reform, though here
they stood, regardless

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of their word, men sober
now but still unable

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to describe what drew them
back to find work at the farm

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or repair the county
roads under guard, now

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and then a woman taken off the
street on her fourth or fifth

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offense, sent away to wash
linens and learn to sew,

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wearing her handmade uniform.

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I wanted to practice
law until I saw

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how sunlight filled the high
windows of the superior court

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every day of the spring
session while small birds made

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their argument among the dogwood
trees and the formal magnolia

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with large, firm blossoms
trembled in the air

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as a breeze brought indoors
the odor of the young grass

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and flowers taking hold upon
the Earth so sweet and wild."

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