WEBVTT

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I'm just going to
read three more.

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This poem I wrote while watching
these kids jump on their roller

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skates out front of my house
and outside of San Francisco.

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Summer refrain-- "The Sidewalk."

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Some neighborhood kids
have angled wide board

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against cinder block to
ramp up their roller blades

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and have begun to record
the breadth of their bravery

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with red, green,
white chalk slashes--

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two boys and a girl.

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She out jumps her
counterparts each time.

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And each time, they grudgingly
lay her green stripe down

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past the row and come
faster to the ramp.

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Thrill of gravity defied
for however many seconds--

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the muscle clench and
wince of pleasure.

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They can see in her brown eyes
that she won't decide if she

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will let either of them win.

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They're 11-- maybe 12.

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And before summer is out, she
will kiss both these boys.

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And how they've begun to admire
her longer, more graceful leaps

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of faith in her own body.

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How they look like
they never look away

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when she shakes out black
hair from under her helmet.

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How they've suddenly
fathomed a want deeper

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than any wrapped birthday.

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And they see it in each other
and hate each other for it.

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And like this, they
learn to conspire.

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And while they lie in their
beds in houses next door

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to one another, they both
rise in the unhappy dark ripe

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with orange blossom and gaze
across the street, confused

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and never before so alone.

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Alejandra, Alejandra--
each time sweeter and less

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forgiven across their lips.

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And she skates through
their sun dried dreams.

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Alejandra, Alejandra--
and they know vacation

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will come for them both.

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And they are more aware than
ever of those delineated days--

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June, July.

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Joe knows Tony will
leave for a week south

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to visit his sunny grandmother.

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Tony knows Joe has
to go to Silver City

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as soon as he returns.

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Like this, they become
sullen, absorbed

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in the delirious glue of model
cars, the binary graphics that

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entangle their hours--

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Alejandra, Alejandra

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While Tony is away,
Joe kisses Alejandra

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in the dusk, popsicles melting
in their hands, sidewalk

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spotted sticky and skates
still on their feet.

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Tony brings Alejandra
back a present--

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Shamu snow globe.

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Toni kisses Alejandra
beside the pond in the park,

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while koi look on, murmuring
their algae secrets.

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And Alejandra leaves
to visit her abuelos.

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Then the boys sit together
again on the silent steps

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of the hilltop market, watching
the last days of August sink

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in the miserable sky, cherry
popsicles, blazing fish.

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Alejandra, Alejandra--
abject in their mouths."

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