WEBVTT

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Maybe one more, one more
at the end of this sequence

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when she's coming into language.

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And I stopped writing this and
then collaborated with her,

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where I have a whole other book
of collaborations with Miranda.

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But let's see here.

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Anything that's got an
epigraph by Billie Holiday.

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(SINGING) Mandy's
two, mommy is blue

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because her little
girl is going on three.

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But this Amanda's
as proud as can be

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because she's a big girl now.

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(NORMAL SPEECH)
Remember that one?

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Miranda's the one writing now.

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I am reading.

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"I am writing," she says.

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Raspberry washable marker
making little scratchy

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curvies all over the envelope.

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"M, D, E," she tones curving
up the end of each letter that

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moves the pen and says, "I love
singing," and "only mommy,"

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and "I know that book."

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Falling into language,
she rises into speech.

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For months now, the slowest
sent to comprehension.

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Conversation unfolds.

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Her voice now connects,
meaning blocks.

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Watching out the back
window, "Red bird fly away.

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Only baby carry bubbles."

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Asserting herself
down the street

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clutching the bright
pink plastic tub,

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"Only mommy, only nurse,
nurse in car, nurse in bubble,

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nurse in Elmo, nurse
in book, only nurse."

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We can't say sonic nurse, or
she'll want to do it again.

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Framing this poem, I recall
transcribing the last day's

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words of my grandmother as she
floated from consciousness,

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ice chips melting in her mouth.

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Miranda, my daughter,
rose into language.

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The music has had
meaning for months,

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and now coheres,
focuses, relays.

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I no longer have
to read her mind.

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I no longer have
to read your mind.

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You can tell me what you want.

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I show you an eye pillow,
and you make it "bed eye."

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Just in July, we
walked down the street,

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and I realized you
could say anything.

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So we fed you
Shakespeare and Proust.

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You can feed back
acrobatics, bubby wumps.

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Samuel Delaney, upon hearing
our alphabetic recitations

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of apple, bowl, cat, dog,
and egg, et cetera asks,

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"Can you say rambunctious?"

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You delightedly wrap
your teeth around it all.

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I say, "You can say anything,"
and you say "Anything."

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And when you see a heart, you
say, "It means I love you."