WEBVTT

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Let's see.

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I'll read one more poem--

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well, I'll read two more
poems if you don't mind.

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And then I'll tell you stories.

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"Inventor."

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The poetry world is--

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I don't know.

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It was not interested in the
tone and the confessional.

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And so something
else is happening

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at the end of this book--

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something else was
happening to me.

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I don't know if I
picked it up or not.

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But anyway, I like this poem.

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"Strikes Out."

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"The jay streaks through
the lilacs in color clash.

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I note down, quote,
'invent outdoor bird swing'

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so birds, drunk on
berries, fall off

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in plaid in front of my window.

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I file it.

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After all, the pussy
willows barely tufted.

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I have time.

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At the drain, lifting its
feet, a Modigliani bird.

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Another invention?

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The brook agrees so
brookishly, gulping

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at run off like a bear in
spring, like my husband.

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He didn't trust my
patents, the gutter chain,

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the collapsing arthritic's
cane, a lever for pulling

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old stumps in heavy rain.

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But every act harbors
a corresponding gadget.

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It is that way with God,
adjusting the acorn,

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locking the tree.

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With the womb, he was
clearly Italianate.

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The bulbous lines.

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The excess.

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I often think of him.

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Humming Beatles songs like me,
over six Mason jars of improved

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pickling, my offspring.

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The dog laughs.

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You heard it, a choke
then black gums.

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A frothing irony.

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He's all wet from rescuing
bones from the brook.

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He drops them in
and then goes after.

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The brook's rising
with bones and I'm

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afraid the
electricity will fail.

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Will the dog save me
with his laughing?

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That's what this invention's
for, the automatic rosebush

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waterer, hooked to the sun
and this wheel in perpetuity.

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Once a pirate working
on my outboard

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told me, Betty, better sand
trickling the hourglass

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than a shifting dune.

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Even the Sudanese plant borders
of aloe against the drifts.

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Besides, I like
the look of roses.

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Oh, that's the husband
at the door, scratching.

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Nights his furry self
stands naked before me

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until the dog
removes his stuffing.

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Oh, bear.

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Only by opening the blinds
do I see his bleeding.

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But it's me, not him, aching
with overdue maternity.

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The inventor.

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A simple drawer full of
cobwebs kept for emergency

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does for him, self sticking.

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Then together, we
apprise the chimney,

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holding hands and chatting
about the soot stains.

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That was in the winter before
he died, the deft air stealing

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all we were speaking.

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Yesterday, a patent came from
my speech retrieval unit,

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an unusual event even for me,
because the government usually

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can't get past the drawings.

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And these were intricate.

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I had the duck by the neck,
her feet in food coloring,

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each step inked in.

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It all made sense.

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Listen to the ducks now.

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And just in time for the aspect.

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Ghosts are aspects, aren't they?

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Of all but speech,
I have a memory.

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That one sense shy of mimicry.

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In the spring, now, in fact,
I take the black fly larva

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off rocks in the Rapids.

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On toast, pre-maggot, the
very eggs of mortality.

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Eating them, I figure I
can lure death itself.

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A raccoon washing and
washing in the dark.

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And from there, patent the trap.

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I'll be rich if it works.

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Works, go the frogs.

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Works, works."

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[APPLAUSE]

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Ooh, thank you.

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