WEBVTT

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When I was about in
the second grade,

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it seemed they started
teaching us what

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to do in case of an atom bomb.

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And the air raid drills had
quite a lasting impression

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on me.

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Duck under the desk and, you
know, you've been through that.

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I wrote a poem about that.

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There's a reference in it to
the testing of the air raid

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sirens in Seattle,
where I was living

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at the time, every Wednesday,
every Wednesday noon.

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It's called "Preparation."

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"It was likely to occur
during the happiest story

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or at the explosion
of a brainstorm

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or as the product fused
from mere numbers.

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The blue sky we knew would
go yellow and fear sick.

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Then after the flash, white
as a bloodless Caucasian.

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What we had to learn was like
dancing to follow, a desk.

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No protection from the teacher's
C would save our lives.

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There were times we
wondered, would we

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go all at once, tightly
curled, little fetuses,

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rooms full of legal abortions?

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A brace of peace holding
our shoulders back, bent.

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We were suspicious
of white dawns.

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We kept one ear ready always for
the voice of our siren mother.

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We expect now the
friendly alarm Wednesdays

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as Sunday we depend on
brimstone to quake the church.

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Some say that God alone, though
he doesn't laugh, is not scared

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and that there still are those
who sing without government

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like birds and are prepared."

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