WEBVTT

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Alison told you that I've been
hanging around Provincetown

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for a while so I'll read a
couple of Provincetown poems.

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I'll read one against
being immortal.

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This one is against fate,
against a tragic sense

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of a life.

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It's called "In Memoriam,
for Aurelius Battaglia

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and Against His
Tragic Sense of Life."

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"Aurelius Battaglia,
the greatest loudmouth

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in the world, has bored
everybody to death

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and shouted down
everybody everywhere,

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at cocktail parties and bars
and New York, Hollywood, London,

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Paris, Rome.

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Now when I meet him in
Ciro's bar in Provincetown

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he can't talk.

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He's had an operation
for cancer of the larynx.

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He can only whisper,
constantly spitting in my ear.

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He claims it's his fate, his
destiny, his comeuppance.

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He's being punished
for the sin of hubris,

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of overweening pride.

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He's paying out
to all the people

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he has pissed off by
his immoral shouting

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domination of all conversation.

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He feels proud of his personal
ironic and tragic fate

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as the greatest loudmouth
ever made silenced

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by overuse of his vocal cords
resulting in absolutely just

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throat cancer.

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I try to say Auri, Auri,
although he cannot hear me

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through his crazy whispering
speculative egotistical

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logorrhea.

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Listen Auri, it's true that
you have an appropriate fate,

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that you're an offensive loud
mouth shut up by throat cancer.

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But don't really believe in
appropriate fates or tragedies

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or just punishment for hubris.

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That's just bullshit theory.

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It might help you in your
merely personal agony

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but remember contingency,
remember automobile accidents.

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Remember the random death
of innocent people in wars,

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politics, fires, epidemics,
plane crashes, you name it.

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We live like herds of animals,
impersonal personal accidents

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happen regardless of personal
characteristics, vices,

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or virtues.

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So listen Auri, when
you and I walk out

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of Ciro's dead drunk
tonight after the bars

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close, when we are still
arguing this problem,

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when you are not listening to me
and I am not listening to you,

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we could both get hit by one of
the drunk drivers around here

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and that would not be tragic.

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It would not even be fate.

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It would just be
ridiculous death.

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So pace, Auri, pace."

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[LAUGHTER]

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