WEBVTT

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One more of these.

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And then as I said, I'll
close with something else.

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"The Art of Distance 3."

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"They shade the torso
from behind the nape,

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across the shoulder
to the center chest,

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taking away exactly the
normal rough and adjacent

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sable winter-thickened fur.

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"Making, when she
crouches at my feet,

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the joint and sinew discernible
under the startled skin,

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as in those close-up
photos from the village,

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as if she were hunched
above us like a slack gazelle.

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But when she's
sleeping on her side,

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her neck extended might
be the slack gazelle.

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Fifty-seven stitches strike from
the spine inside the sheltering

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ridge of the collarbone.

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Down to where the
trachea enters alone,

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their puckered
punctuated seam gathering

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what something split apart.

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Some creature
cornered in the woods

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or field, no trophy, no raw
meat except her own, no carcass,

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pinions now beneath her paws.

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Only the wretched quilt,
torn, and stained.

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And obedient courteous dog,
she is abashed to pee indoors.

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She doesn't squat.

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She stands with her head
low like a whipped horse

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as the gush puddles the floor.

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And even though or because
mostly when I touch her,

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it is to apply the many
therapies prescribed,

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pills down her throat, hot
compress on the draining wound,

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or to smooth the
palate of her lying in.

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She neither whimpers
loudly nor draws back.

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Therefore, she seems not only
dutiful but grateful, too,

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as though the touch conveyed
a recognition, a bond,

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if not of pain, in dignity.

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Compassion not for
another but for oneself,

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which makes my hand
enact a tenderness,

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like the rough warm tongue
that lifts the weak one plea."

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