WEBVTT

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I'm going to close the reading
with a poem from my new book.

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And well, I'm reading all these
sort of adolescent like poems

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or adolescent poetry.

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I don't know what
it's called but it's

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what I have to offer to Tucson.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I really do write some
serious stuff at times.

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"Learning My Lesson."

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"When I was five I found
beauty, a girl on a box of soap

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while foldng in the
alley with my brother who

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was all gum and better looks.

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He snatched the box,
gazed and looked back

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at me, kid with a spiky hair and
teeth like broken down fence.

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Said he knew her house
and took me down her alley

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to the street Mother
said never to cross.

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Over there he
pointed, that house.

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I worried my brow into lines.

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Stacked boards, oily field
of truck parts, a warehouse

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slamming shut with machinery.

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No, sir, I said
being no one's fool

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and ran away to play, only
to return, look both ways

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and cross the street.

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I look back, a river of
glass and bottle caps

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gleamed on the asphalt.
The parked car seemed far.

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Even Rick who was jumping
up in delight, singing I

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was a dead boy on the
floor when mama found out.

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You're stupid too,
I said, turned

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and walked until I was
lost and talking to a dog.

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How did I get back?

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How did any of us get
back when we search for--

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when we search for beauty?

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I don't know except days
later our neighbor's cat

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crossed that street and
came home with a sliver

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long as an evil
finger poking its eye.

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Poor orange cat it couldn't
tear, blink, or close its eyes

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and sleep even in death."

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Thank you very much for coming.

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[APPLAUSE]

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