WEBVTT

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Well, so much for desire.

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I'm going to read you
some poems about a breakup

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and its aftermath.

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Midnights is a book
of prose poems.

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Each of the sections
is without a title.

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But the end has, instead of
a title, a time and a place.

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And much of the time,
as you might guess,

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is around the hour of
midnight with some exceptions.

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"Midnights."

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"The yogi, trained
as a shiatsu master,

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doesn't meet my gaze when she
first wakes here to help me.

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Preparation is all.

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Attention is required.

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I learned the point in the hand
where the folded third finger

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presses against a crisis.

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I learned the ground is felt
with the toes of splayed

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and the four corners
of each foot planted.

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She discovers, on my head,
where foolishness knocked me

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at the shallow end of a pool.

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My master is swimming
in the pool now.

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She has left me to
practice improvement.

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The shiatsu master is a
vase with pale blue irises

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when she works, legs folded
under her opposite knee

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as in a tea ceremony
which I am not

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prepared to attend,
unfortunately.

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Master, I am on our mat
and following instructions.

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Unfortunately, I'm fortunately
taking prescriptions

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three times a day.

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I am not tired from them,
which means, unfortunately,

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I must stay on them.

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Poetry, fortunately,
goes on and on, online,

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in chapbooks, handset
on handmade paper,

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and pressed into bark.

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While the proprietors
of the small presses

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and their disciples assemble
to open hearts from one

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end of the universe to the
other without need of me

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or anyone resembling me.

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Fortunately, this
is a relief, even

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to those few who wept when I
wept and slept when I slept.

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Unfortunately, those who
chose not to bow when I bowed

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have to find someone else
to pour hot water on.

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Unfortunately,
that will be easy.

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But fortunately,
making such a gesture

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means they will
never be masters.

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Master, I am on our mat.

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I feel as you proposed
my heart with my poems.

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I feel under my chin for the
end of the heart meridian

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and find many others there
who are unfortunately

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in much worse shape.

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And I'm ashamed of myself.

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And make tea for them as you
demonstrated every morning,

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which, unfortunately, I failed
to observe keenly enough

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and now imitate poorly,
if at all, what it

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means to be a vessel.

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The love that travels along
the pathways of the body,

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may the sweet wind
returned to you.

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May fortune have it
that all your senses

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awake through the
breath, through the nose.

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And may I apologize for
filling the air with perfume

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too heady for one such as you.

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If only I could spare
you these outpourings.

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Believe me, it is
fortunate that I

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know that the tea must flow
in one direction at one time

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to flow in all
directions at once.

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I know but cannot
say, cannot do.

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My energy, my master, disperses.

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Mellow miso, seaweed, daikon,
ginger, and other root

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vegetables, you wish
them for me to ground me

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as I wish you heaven on Earth.

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If ever I were to touch
you, fortunately, it

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would not be on this Earth.

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Unhappily, if that
is the right word,

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I have cracked the
bowl of the one slave

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I am permitted to
touch on this Earth

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with a scream so high
pitched as to be inaudible,

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except that, unfortunately, she
heard it and lies in bed now

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with a new lover's
hands over her ears.

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I pray that when her
new lover moves down

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the pathways of my lover's body
that the unfolded third finger

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of love, my master,
releases our crisis."

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Ash Avenue, Tucson,
darkest part of the night.