WEBVTT

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Thank you, Julie.

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It's always so
disappointing when

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I'm the one that has to come
up after an introduction

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like that.

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Just to keep me honest
here, I have a script.

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My mind is a dog
without a master,

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so I need a script
to stay with it here.

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Thank you all.

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Julie for that Shop Talk, too.

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And for all the perceptive
people that came out for that

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and made those
poems come to life.

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Thanks to Tyler and Becka,
everyone at the Poetry Center.

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You've been such gracious hosts.

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And to Janice Dewey
and her poetry students

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for your attention.

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And thanks to all of
you for coming out.

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I'm going to begin
where I live, which

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is just blocks from the historic
district of Philadelphia.

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The city of brotherly love.

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The cradle of liberty.

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Home of the fabled
founding fathers.

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The Liberty Bell.

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Independence Hall.

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In short, I'm living
a real 21st century

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life surrounded by the idealized
icons of American history.

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So join me in one of
those horse-drawn buggies

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as it's circling
Independence Mall.

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I'm going to skip the title.

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Titles are stupid when
you're trying to read a poem.

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Somehow it's just like, no.

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"And the mare kicks
at her traces,

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pulling the old fashioned
rig around Independence Hall.

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Surrounded now by
cheap aluminum stands,

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fences to hold off terrorists.

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Another fool's errand
on which Smokey

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the Bear and his brethren,
the National Park Service,

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with their self-important
official hats have been sent.

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The terrorists don't give a damn
about our little historic pile

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of bricks and sentiment
from a time before empire.

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When 18th century men,
in what was hopefully

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called the Enlightenment,
made their stand for autonomy.

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More economic than ideal,
but sanctified by time

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and by an empire's need for
roots with some morality

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clinging to them
and not just dirt.

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There was a prediction
back in Franklin's time

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that if the population
grew at the current rate,

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the amount of horse manure
would be in another century

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18 feet deep.

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They weren't entirely wrong.

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Though they didn't factor in
the steam engine, Henry Ford,

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or the trolley car,
they guessed right

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on the depth of horse shit.

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Though most of it is in DC,
Where it draws crowds of flies.

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Where the Washington Monument
white towering obelisk glowers

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with its red electric eyes.

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A Klansman in a white
hood staring down

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the blossoming mall.

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Admiring its reflection
in the monumental pool."

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This is mostly bummer
lit, but you know.

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You don't choose
what you write about.

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