WEBVTT

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"The Error of Echo."

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"The day I won the
school spelling bee,

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Jeff Wood was in eighth
grade, and I was in fourth.

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I think of him at odd times,
like standing in front of a tea

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kettle, and I still feel
bad his friends teased

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him the rest of
the day for losing

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by misspelling the word echo.

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As in reflection of sound.

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The wistful whispering
of salaat in every corner

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of the mosque, those still
dark almost-mornings.

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'Do you hear an echo?'

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they taunted Jeff when
he tried to speak.

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E-C-O he had sounded
out careful and slow,

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hands easy in the
pockets of his Wranglers.

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That football shaped belt
buckle catching light

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reflected by the stacks
of stainless steel

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hot trays at the end
of the old cafeteria.

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I spent so many singular
hours there wishing I

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was someone, anyone else.

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E-C-O he had spelled.

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As in prefix for ecosystem.

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As in I am alive.

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A small part of some
bewildered and beautiful series

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of frameworks.

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After, I was embarrassed.

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You know, the way you are
when you're young and don't

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know how to hold the--

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After, I was
embarrassed the way you

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are when you're
young and don't know

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how to hold the possibility
of your own potential.

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Mrs. Simmons handed me a
trophy, and Jeff and I probably

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shook hands.

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Do you hear an echo?

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As in young and beautiful nymph
cursed to endlessly repeat

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the voice of another.

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As in I too have been so afraid
that the only way I could speak

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was on my own."

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