WEBVTT

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This poem is dedicated to
the nurses in the audience.

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Any nurses?

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No, only one?

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Ah, there she is.

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I know that nurse.

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[CHUCKLES] Bob
Houston's a nurse.

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Mid-life career change, Bob?

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Yeah.

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And of course, I don't know
how this one came about,

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except I live over by
the university hospital.

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And also, there's some
chickens in my neighborhood.

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And I also feel
sorry for nurses.

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I don't know why.

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One word, caseous,
means cheesy, OK?

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It's in the second
line, caseous.

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"Nurses."

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"Early in the morning, there may
be nothing in the caseous sky

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but one cloud sailing
over the forest,

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high in the Rincon mountains.

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Slowly, it begins
making up its mind.

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A handkerchief escaped
from a coal mine,

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while the miner, on his
knees, picks his way forward,

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unaware to the time.

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Now a magician scarf
going through its progress

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and with its own kind of
intelligence, after a while,

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shapes itself into a chicken.

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That's what the other
chickens in our neighborhood

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see all day going over them,
stretching their necks,

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like nurses in
training, and go out

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on a holiday, still forced
to wear their uniforms,

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not sure where to go.

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For hours, they study it.

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Some think it's coming closer,
while the talented ones step

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a little ways off,
sit down on stumps,

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make sketches, discuss,
especially, its eye, which,

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like an egg in
cross-section, has

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a blastodisc in the
middle of the yolk,

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with chalazas swirling
off, the swirling

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eye of a storm, a
semi-precious stone.

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Now they hear talk about an
armada of bombers heading off,

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with boys inside,
thinking of home,

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to rain sudden destruction
upon the Germans.

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In any case, hours later,
they're up on the house

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tops, lining fence posts,
watching it pitch down,

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copper weather vane thrown
into a sidereal dump,

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the doubters say.

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But the hand of God, say
others, and they almost

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wave back, reaching
up their sleeves

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for their handkerchiefs.

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And they're the ones who, hours
later, don't feel like supper,

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but avoiding the crowds,
go into the day room, sit,

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lights off, playing the piano,
listening to themselves."

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