WEBVTT

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This next poem is called
"Jason at Eighty."

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That's Jason.

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He took the-- stole.

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He stole the Golden Fleece.

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He steals the Golden Fleece.

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He's about 20 then, maybe 18.

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Medea helped him.

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[? Degrando ?] and Argo
and all that stuff.

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Lots of heroes pulling the oars.

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And then he becomes
King of Corinth.

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He fools around a lot,
and then he betrays Medea,

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the one thing he said he
cannot, he's promised not to do.

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She's a witch.

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She's very tough, and
she frightens him.

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And then because of this,
she takes her revenge,

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and he's kicked out of Corinth.

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He's about 40.

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He's got about eight kids.

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The Corinthians stoned
about three of them.

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And then later, they pay one
of those playwrights that

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changed the history to write.

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Anyway, Medea was written, too.

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The play "Medea"
was written partly

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to say that it was not
the Corinthians that

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killed those children.

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Medea herself.

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Anyway, for the next 40 years,
Jason wandered all over Greece.

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A very unhappy fellow.

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And then finally he
decides to commit suicide.

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He's going to go back to
where the Argo is beached,

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and he's going to do it there
if things don't work out,

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which is what this
poem is about.

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There's a little, a minor joke.

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The place where the
Golden Fleece was

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and where Medea lived,
the country of Colchis,

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is the modern-day Russian
province of Georgia

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where Stalin lived.

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Stalin the Medea came
from the same town,

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more or less, which
always seemed appropriate.

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"Jason at Eighty."

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After 40 years of being
kicked around Greece,

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Jason returned to the
Isthmus of Corinth

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where the Argo had been beached.

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Golden ship with 50 oars,
made with seasoned timber

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from Mount Pelion.

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Jason sat down by
the ship and took

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from his pouch a small
rag, which he unwrapped

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to reveal a minuscule
sliver of vanity,

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like a small lump of
coal or crystal knife

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that flickered in the sunlight.

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Peering into this last
remnant of self-love,

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Jason considered his
past glories, by then

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so far in the past
he had to hear

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them sung about before he
could say, yes, that's it,

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that's how it happened.

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But slowly, he
recalled the yoking

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of the fire-breathing
bulls, sowing the field

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with dragon's teeth, the
theft of the Golden Fleece,

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as he chased one shining
temptation after another.

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Think of the mistakes
that young man made.

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Handsome, a good family,
educated in the best schools,

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he had never
anticipated failure.

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Therefore, when
his devious uncle

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sent him to fetch the
ram's fleece from Colchis,

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nothing had seemed easier.

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He hired himself a boat.

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I'm sorry.

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He hired himself a crew,
bought the best boat.

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And despite mistake
after stupid mistake,

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he always squeaked
through, depending

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on those with more
brains to save him

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from the jams in which he found
himself, whether Hercules,

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Orpheus, or Medea, that
dolt daughter of Colchis,

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whose other most famous
citizen was Stalin.

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In reward, Jason received
the kingdom of Corinth.

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No matter that he was married
to a witch; had broken oaths

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and left behind
the tale of pillage

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which, if he hadn't committed,
he had certainly condoned;

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had slept with every
woman he could catch,

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and thought her well repaid
if she could bear his breath.

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Jason was the kind of man
who, if he fell from a window,

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would land in a
passing wagon of hay.

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The soldier, whose breast pocket
Bible stops the fatal bullet.

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After a youth of
self-indulgence, good luck,

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and cheering crowds, he
must have felt badly tricked

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when his world collapsed simply
because he cheated on Medea

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and broke his word to the gods.

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How could he have thought that
was the line not to be crossed?

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He, who had crossed so many.

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But in no time, his new
girlfriend went up in smoke.

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His sons were slaughtered.

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And Jason found himself
stripped of his crown

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and bustled from
Corinth, without so much

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as a toothbrush, reference,
or casual goodbye.

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The gate slammed shut.

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Guards on the walls
tossed down a few rocks.

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And Jason wound
up on the outside

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forever, left to
fend for himself,

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the one thing he could not
do for the next 40 years.

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He was hounded from city
to city as he sought out

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old cronies who refused
to help, or even see him.

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He lived as a
beggar, an outcast,

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whose only treasure was that
tiny sliver of vanity, which

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he carried with him like a
lump of coal or crystal knife

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with which to gouge
and torment himself.

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But eventually, he returned
to the Isthmus of Corinth.

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And as Jason crouched down
within the shadow of the Argo,

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scratching himself and
muttering complaints,

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he took out that smidgen
of vanity and unwrapped it.

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And oh, it was battered,
and barely gave off a shine.

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But as he peered into
its black corners,

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it began to twinkle and
generate a slight light, which

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at last was bright
enough to blind him

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to the bad parts with the trade
promises and comrades forsworn.

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And despite his eighty years
and judgment of the gods,

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Jason told himself that
he was still a hero,

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and that he, who
had been scorned,

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should now scorn all the world
by assuming his punishment

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and taking his own life.

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And staring up at
the Argo glittering

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in the late afternoon
sun, Jason grabbed

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the rope, knotted a
noose, and flung it

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over the prow of the ship.

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And it's this that
makes him great.

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Not the girls and good
times and flashing

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acts of bravado, but that
forty years of punishment

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had taught him zip.

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That despite hardship and all
the evidence to the contrary,

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Jason still thought he could
escape the world's sentence

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by hurling his ego
furiously against it,

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like a rock through
a plate-glass window.

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But the world, here in the
form of the Argo herself,

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would have none of it.

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And as Jason cranked
up his courage

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to hang himself in a last
gesture of self-assertion,

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the Argo shuttered, rolled
out of the sunlight,

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toppled, and crushed
Jason, a puny figure,

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standing in the sand.

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