WEBVTT

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I want to read a poem.

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I can't remember the
last time I read it.

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But at dinner tonight,
of all things,

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someone told me that she
wrote a poem about a deaf-mute

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just recently.

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And I have a poem
about a deaf-mute.

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If you ride the L in Chicago--

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L is an elevated train--

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you often confront
the deaf-mutes

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selling their little
cards, which are alphabets.

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And the idea is to
get a quarter, or so,

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from people on the train.

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And I got one once,
and I read it.

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And that's what
this poem is about,

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receiving one of these things,
which is called the American

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Manual Alphabet.

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And there's also-- there
are some more titles here,

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a deaf-mute education card.

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So I wrote a poem
called "Hand Signs."

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On the subway, I gave a
quarter to the deaf-mute

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who handed out the
deaf-mute education cards.

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His hand closed on
the coin like a wink,

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some secret
understanding between us.

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Across from me, a
woman, who had studied--

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who had studied my glance
like an anchor of light,

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smiled at me and removed her
glove, revealing a naked hand.

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I didn't know what to
make of it, so calm,

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a hand set free, unlike those
on the deaf-mute's card.

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On it was the American
Manual Alphabet, one language

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for the entire world.

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Alongside the alphabet
were hand signs

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for common words and phrases.

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The tips of two index
fingers touching,

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meaning "friend," as if
with that simple formation,

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we were to remind ourselves
of the continual flow

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of flesh and pulse towards
the mutual flood of need.

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The eventual appearance
of the entire hand

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blooming insanely like a
flower on turbulent waters.

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To express the idea of good, how
easy, a thumb pointing upward,

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fist held like a
chalice against the sky.

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Artist contemplating
his subject,

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knowing if that word can
be expressed faithfully

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and simply, there is no need
for the painterly images

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of truth and beauty.

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And for bad, the
small finger held out,

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easily confused with
the sign for the letter

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I, frail, unsteady,
skeptic, testing the wind.

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The man standing in
front of me almost

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fell as the train
screeched and jerked.

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I saw his eyes close, and
the knuckles, turning white

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as he gripped the
steel post, seemed

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to stare out like eyes trying
to burst through flesh.

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I turned my eyes away, toward
the woman across from me.

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But my glance fell
without effort

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toward the calm hand,
the hand set free.

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And I thought I saw a
faint white circle of flesh

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around her ring finger.

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On the mute's card,
I saw another circle,

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the sign for perfection, formed
by the curled thumb and index

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finger, the shape of the world,
the eye, a common stone that

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keeps rolling to maintain
its shape and symbol,

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the hole through
which ideas slip away,

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against which we press our eyes,
like children curious to catch

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a glimpse of the other world.

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I knew I wouldn't
say anything to her.

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In the middle of
the card, the word

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"Mary," two hands held together.

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A prayer so desperate,
it turns into a grip.

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A few stops later,
I noticed she was

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gone, glove lying in the aisle.

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Bored with myself,
I looked at the back

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of the card, a list of
days to fly the flag upon,

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from New Year's Day
to Thanksgiving,

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and a quote from the
Pledge of Allegiance.

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How many of us had placed
our hands over our hearts,

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as if a sudden pain had
rendered our words useless,

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as if we were practicing
some plea that by the gesture

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itself, some deaf-mute
would come to us,

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take our hands from our
chests, and place them

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against his cheeks,
over his lips and eyes,

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until we understood every
patriotic occasion took

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the form of a face?

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And the silence
of that awareness

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asked itself to be broken by
those of us who could sing,

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who could almost sing.

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