WEBVTT

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So there's a part
of that section

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that I just read where
I wanted to figure out--

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it didn't seem like it sort
of belonged in that book,

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and I wanted to see what
would happen if I sort of took

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a left turn and tried to write a
different book out of that, out

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of a little tiny
stands in one book,

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and, poof, this came
out, just like that.

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I mean, I didn't
know it at the time.

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You never really
know, or maybe you do

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and maybe I just don't,
what you're doing

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or where a new book
will sort of come out.

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But there was just a very little
moment where the children sort

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of go back in this old sort
of aluminum airplane hangar,

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and I wanted to see
what would happen

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if a book happened
in there and left

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all this Austro-Hungarian
business behind.

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So that's sort of why they sort
of happened at the same time

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in this book.

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It's sort of much more--

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it's much more of this book.

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This is one section
called "Of Bird, String,

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and Dragging Fables."

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In the apple orchard dragged--

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well, somebody did.

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Thick boot steps in the bee
mud, a dog dead, and carefully

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scooped away Sunday's
grassy cuttings

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and left the animal to beetles.

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Carefully scooped lumps
of grass back over,

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and it was perfect almost,
until my brother, sneaking

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to meet a girl, heard the
raccoons grunting like seals,

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pawing the dog's stiff leg out.

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My brother, with a
white BIC lighter.

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Raccoons scatter.

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Autumn, and count until
forever, and you're done.

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Couldn't you see the ending
before it unraveled you?

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Would you mind lying down first?

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Did you come by foot
over the new bridge?

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Here with a poem
becomes ladders again.

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The little girl returned
with candy and a

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"nearly" on her lips.

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Dirty holdout, the bank robbers'
melody in the evening shower

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upstairs seeps
through with the hump

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of the ceiling fan
like the telephone

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into the fury of the vacuum.

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Anna steals out of bed,
needs earliness, hours of it,

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to reel undarkening landscapes
into her old Holga camera.

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Railroad bridge, garbled
depot, plasma bank

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on South Fourth Avenue.

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This night, someone
special will wander drunk

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to a crushed payphone, sink the
quarter into the gummed slot,

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and have the
conversation anyway.

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You should really apologize
and bring those dreams

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into the diner.

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Well, with you, pocket mouse,
but shh, shh, exactly so.

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Sleep it, open.

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Exactly so.

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The thieves had
lifted themselves out

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of the tunnel with
such swiftness.

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They rinsed their faces and
hands in the subway washroom,

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paused for the
clicking turnstile

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to click back, and assure a
crowded entry just as the train

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doors open, bustling out.

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Your soldier hangs his
dark uniform neatly

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in the washroom
stall and re-enters

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the city in street clothes.

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If it's hung carefully
enough, somebody

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will wear it out and
disappear against you

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as you re-appeared yourself
as somebody somewhere

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else, the same but
differently in finish.

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Cities are for breaking you
into several people at once.

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Swamps, however, have
white egrets, noise enough

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to pull the eyes
out of your head.

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If drizzle, then mosquitoes.

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Home almost, at least
where words cut your lip,

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and I spoke you together
and then back apart.

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A fear of all
basements and attics,

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fear of triplets and twins,
fear of trees that lean badly

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onto power lines or houses,
a fear of the 16th hour

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and flawless numbers of
uncles, heavy with booze,

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and the hasty games of cousins.

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Fear of the telegram and
the wires of the doorbell.

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In the swimming pool light,
the boy who freed the moth

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plods back up the stairs, does
a little jig in the mirror,

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and flops into bed.

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He has cats and he has
sisters, and he confuses

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on purpose their names.

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The machines, the
machines break down

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in a street sweeping
huff in the city

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as its imperial way with us.

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