WEBVTT

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This is another
genealogy poem-- in fact,

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called the genealogist.

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And I actually have
been sending out--

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what do you call them--

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questionnaires to relatives,
many of whom I don't know.

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And I happened--
through a cousin,

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who I knew something about, I
happened upon a relative I'd

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never heard of, a man in
his 60s who's a painter who

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lives in New York City.

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And he's on sort of
another side of the family.

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He's on a maiden name
side of the family.

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And one of the things I'd
been looking for, aside

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from the facts, it was
a little more romantic.

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One of the questions
I asked, if there's

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any black sheep in the family--
any artists, any writers.

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I wanted a little
excitement aside

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from the dull facts of born
in bogus love, Russia in 1877,

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or whatever.

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And so I got this guy.

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His name is Joe
Wallens, and he lives

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on West Street in the
Village in New York City.

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And I asked one
of the questions--

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just a dumb
question-- do you have

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any hobbies, or
special interests,

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or talents that occupy a
large part of your spare time.

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And he just wrote
this wonderful letter,

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and he says, "Other than my
painting and sexual forays--"

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[LAUGHTER]

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--I am deeply
involved in ecology."

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[LAUGHTER]

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It's great.

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Anyways, that's my
cousin Joe Wallens.

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But he also told me
about my Aunt Rose,

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who tried to kill her children
when they were teenagers.

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And he mentioned my
great-great-aunt, Sarah,

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who we said was the center
of the family at the time,

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was a real crazy one.

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He said she was the
mistress of Herzl,

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who was the founder of
Zionism in Germany, when

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she was about 16 years old.

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So there's something
in the past.

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Anyways, the poem is not
as good as the story,

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but it's called
"The Genealogist."

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"When I open this
carved stone and enter,

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nothing can be otherwise.

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The row of smelt hangs on
the line across the yard

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from sheets.

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And through the steam, I watch
an old woman clean the fish,

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and a man sharpen the knives.

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When I squint, I can
see the stonemason

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over his cunning tools.

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From that solitude, he carves
the image of water and clouds

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and a hanged man, the
clouds worn like bandages

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over the restless eyes.

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When I can't remember
what I do with my days,

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I see a pocked face, bent
over a bench, mumbling,

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'Because of us.'"

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