WEBVTT

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A poem called "Prodigy."

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When I was very young,
well, I do mention the date,

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I played very good chess.

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And the pleasure of being a kid,
kind of a juvenile delinquent,

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all the parents warning their
children not to play with me,

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was that I could beat,
not just the kids,

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but even grown-ups
in the neighborhood.

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So this is my glorious period.

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Nothing matched it since.

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"Prodigy," "I grew up
bent over a chessboard.

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I loved the word "endgame."

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All my cousins looked worried.

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It was a small house
near a Roman graveyard.

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Planes and tanks shook
its window panes.

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A retired professor of
astronomy taught me how to play.

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That must have been in 1944.

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In the set we were
using, the paint

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had almost chipped
off the black pieces.

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The white King was missing
and had to be substituted for.

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I'm told but do not believe
that that summer I witnessed

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men hung from telephone poles.

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I remember my mother
blindfolding me a lot.

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She had a way of tucking my head
suddenly under her overcoat.

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In chess, too, the
professor told me,

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the masters played
blindfolded, the great ones

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on several boards
at the same time."

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