WEBVTT

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These are all new now.

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The first one is
from Beirut, again.

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There were a lot of car
bombs when we were there.

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If the cars all
stopped, if a car

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stopped in the middle of the
street, everyone would stop.

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And all the people would
run from their cars

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with the engines running
because people were afraid

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that one of the cars
was going to blow up.

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When the car bombs went off, as
now, the ambulances would come.

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And then another
bomb would come off

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to kill the people who
had come to rescue.

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This poem is called "In
the Cinema of the Place des

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Martyrs."

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The Place des Martyrs
in the center of Beirut.

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And it was an area of the
city that was completely

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destroyed and uninhabited
except for one street, which

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was gleaming, and shiny,
and perfect, and untouched.

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It was the street where
all the banks were.

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"In the Cinema of the
Place des Martyrs."

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That morning, they
lifted above their heads

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what appeared to be a doll
in a christening gown.

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And we stood in the blasted
haze waiting for plumes

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to stanch the fires quickening
through carpets and bedclothes.

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And we did not turn away.

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Nor did we photograph the child,
except at the moment of its

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being raised.

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But later walked to
the Place des Martyrs,

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where a stillness had
been created entirely

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by small-arms fire that so
blistered walls and blackened

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shops that no one remained
in that part of the city.

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And we stood before
the ruined movie house

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that had lost all but
its blank screen, where

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once all manner of
figures had shown--

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wavering, composed of light,
their speech subtitled,

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passionate, inane--

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with nothing to say to the
audience we had become.

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