WEBVTT

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Is this thing on?

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Can you hear me?

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Good.

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Great.

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OK.

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The first poem I'll
read is my second elegy.

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And it's for Agatha
Christie, who

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I was very fond of as a child.

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And I love the details in
her book, The Old Fashioned

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Elegance, and all
sorts of things.

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And I love the mystery.

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And I love being
able to figure out

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who did it because she always
made you hate the person even

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though she never told you
anything specific about them.

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And when she died, she was
the end of something special

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in my life and for
many people who

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like to just curl up and
read mystery stories.

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And there's nothing like her.

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She fits very well auden's
essay the guilty vicarage read.

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He talks about the ethics
of the mystery story.

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And I wrote an elegy for her.

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Elegy for Agatha Christie.

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In the pantry, a decanter
reflects Topaz pools

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on pastries and the tins
as the late sun flows in

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through an open window.

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Outside, a tall woman
bends and clips off

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red roses for a perfect setting
the guests first meeting.

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That picturesque
elegant dinner will

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be disturbed by which person's
memory of an incident in Egypt.

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The butler yawns behind the door
pauses before crossing the hall

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and hears the guests
rising from their chairs.

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The sticky mark above an ear
locks every door that night.

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Upstairs, a girl in a flowered
dress holds a photograph

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and weeps.

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The man in the
corridor makes a fist

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at his own image in the glass.

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And all over the world, people
sit up not wanting to finish

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and still not able to sleep.

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They think they know,
knowing themselves.

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Now, one woman is missed
as our lost hours are not.

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For us, she killed the
individual, evil people,

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and the hours
characters for results.

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They are not ourselves,
or even like the crystals

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of our hatred and distrust.

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The heirs of a
murder clearing up,

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and the lost hours that save
us for the accomplishment

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of sleep.

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We are grateful for the murders.

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And we know that all she killed
for us has now killed her.

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Time and boredom
preparing us for the rest.

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That's dark and formal like
the butler sleeping in a chair.

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His large hands innocently
folded between his knees.

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The butler did it, of course.

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