WEBVTT

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I was in Santiago, Chile last
year and some of these poems

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that I'll be reading come from
there, as does this next one.

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There's a great deal
of poverty there.

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And as you go down
the street you're

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constantly being asked
for money by beggars.

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And they all have these
very shiny tin cups.

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So you wonder about that initial
outlay to pay for the tin cup.

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It's called, It Does No Good.

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It does no good.

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Certainly, he looks
foolish even preposterous.

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A middle aged man in
a ragged sport coat

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surrounded by furniture at
a stoplight, a pile of rugs,

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chairs, lamps, on the sidewalk.

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When the light changes
and cars come to a halt,

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the man holds up a
chair and shouts,

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"Sillas or chairs,"
offering them for sale.

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Then the light turns green and
the crowd of cars roars off.

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Certainly, on every
street in Santiago people

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sell merchandise at stoplights,
toothpaste, soap, toolboxes,

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towels, extension
cords, the newspaper,

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even jokes about it, that
the way to boost the economy

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is to put up more stoplights.

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But the man selling chairs
sells his own chairs.

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He wears a striped tie and
his white shirt is clean.

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He's not drunk and
his embarrassed laugh

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almost a giggle
proves that he knows

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he is doing something absurd.

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It is a warm sunny
day in early fall

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and the smell of burning leaves
mixes with the exhaust fumes.

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How long did it take
him to come to this?

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How long did he look for a job?

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How long did he borrow money?

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I stand across the
street and watched.

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No one will buy anything.

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He's too crazy.

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Besides, how can you stock
your car in heavy traffic

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to bargain over a rug?

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At first the man's
hair was neatly combed.

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He's thin but doesn't
look starving.

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When did he make up his mind?

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Even his wife must have thought
he was crazy and his kids,

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they must have
snuck from the house

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early this morning
completely humiliated.

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Can you imagine
watching your old man

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hawking the tables, the
TVs to Hondas and Renaults.

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There's no humor in
his eyes, no laughing.

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They look stretched and
dark from driver to driver

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to driver.

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No one looks back.

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Just some boys across the
street and me standing

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in front of a butcher shop.

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A man's house is an
extension of himself.

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He must have woken
up this morning

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with a plan already
fixed in his head.

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It probably took six
trips to bring that stuff

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to the stoplight.

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He must have worried
something might be stolen.

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He must have known that any
friends, relatives, any family

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would think him ridiculous.

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All those tables and
chairs can't be worth $50,

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and now they'll have to
carry them back again.

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Why doesn't he do something
violent like smash

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the furniture, throw the
lamps at passing cars?

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But he does nothing.

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Simply stands with
a small chair raised

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above his head and grins.

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He no longer even shouts,
Sillas but just stands.

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What foolish thoughts run like
white mice through his brain?

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It does no good to be
crazy if you're poor.

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No money for cigarettes.

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No money for shoes.

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No money for razor blades, a
can of tuna fish, beer, whiskey.

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No money to buy a tin cup.

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[APPLAUSE]

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