WEBVTT

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If I was a real writer,
I'd be able to think

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of a name for the amazing
plant that you are, Cybele.

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I'll be working on that.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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And thank you to
the Poetry Center,

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and to everyone, for being here.

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I feel very lucky to be here.

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So I am going to read those
things, whatever they are.

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And luckily, Cybele
gave us a little bit

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of a sense of what they
may be or may not be.

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So these are from Jewelry Box:
A Collection of Histories.

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"Duck."

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He is a he-- has all
the characteristics

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of a man, male of the
species, lord and warrior.

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He is not a butterfly, though
a butterfly can be male.

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He is not a rock,
though a rock is

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strong and sometimes practical.

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The water is chopped up like
mica, but with fear attached--

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the fear of anything that moves.

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The oddest fear is
that of stillness,

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lack of change, the years
passing by with no good use,

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no fun, no liberation.

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Easier and more classifiable
in the fear department--

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blue truck coming from the
left, punctured bicycle tire,

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punctured heart, stabbing
wound from lurking outsider,

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ritualistic maiming of beloved
living creature, sabotage

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of cherished object,
flowering illness, arrival

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of an unpleasant neighbor.

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The girl thinks he must be
male because she thought-- he--

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when she saw him, and because
she's used to imbuing things

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with gender, as if she
speaks French or Spanish--

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which she does, but poorly.

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The duck can be
seen in quick cuts

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on the other side of the rock.

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He is swimming, paddling
with his short legs

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in the frigid waves.

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It's the time of
night when everything

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is up for grabs and the
thing you fear happens.

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In the day, she believes
that if she identifies it,

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names the fear in her head,
then surely it won't actually

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become reality, occur--

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for what a coincidence
that would be.

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The duck seems frightened
by the rocks and by the sea.

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The sky is darkening,
and the clouds

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lean over the duck and the
girl like parents, teachers

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who have discovered them behind
the back fence doing something.

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It is good and right to
have teachers, parents,

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even if they are
didactic and strange.

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It is good and right to feel in
the fold of something powerful.

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You can hear the repeating waves
lapping faster and faster--

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and without regard to
sequence, or shape, or order--

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against the pilings.

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The girl kneels on
the black boulder

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and leans further
out to the sea.

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