WEBVTT

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This is a similar poem.

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It's called The Madman's Wife.

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And I had had a friend several
years ago-- this is partly

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based on him-- who was having
difficulties in his life.

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He was having a
schizophrenic episodes,

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and I tried to think of the
problem from the point of his--

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his problems from the
point of view of his wife.

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Just how difficult
it must be to live

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with someone who's
existing in a totally

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different reality than you are.

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The man's wife is
speaking in the poem.

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It takes place in the morning,
when the man is coming home

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through the neighborhood.

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"The unleashed dog
walks back and forth.

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The cat leaps over
the backyard fence.

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The owl shifts.

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Down this street, the
madman threads his way,

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over curb and cobblestone,
and does not fall.

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At dawn, everyone smiles.

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The butcher has saved
the plumpest hen,

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the barber trims his hair.

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The children tease him
because he is there,

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less than a child,
more than a lump.

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Later, he sits across from me at
breakfast, talking of suicide.

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His plate becomes the
tin plate prisoners

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use to rattle their complaints.

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Last night in a bar,
he says, a woman

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disguised as his wife
told him lie after lie.

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There's no way to answer,
so I put him to sleep.

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What does he dream
with his eyes open?

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I might as well ask what a child
dreams before speech gives him

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the power to lie.

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Out the window, the dog
sees the shadow of a cat.

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The cat looks after the owl,
the owl keeps the moon in place.

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To be mad, I know, is to
be out of touch with life.

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To touch a stranger in a
bar and say, 'My wife.'

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But even the truth
would be a betrayal.

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He wakes.

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'Read me a story,' he
begs, 'tell me the names.'

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I gaze into his white
eyes, into the blue gas

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swirling in his heart.

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'Oh, poor us,' I begin."

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[APPLAUSE]

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