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This last book, Mystery
Train, has a sequence

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of 35 poems that
are all-- they're

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more or less sonnets
about rock and roll,

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and rock and roll
lore and inanity.

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So I'll just-- I'm not going
to read all 35 of them.

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Don't worry.

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I'll read a couple more, though.

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This one's called "It's
Only Rock and Roll

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But I Like It, The
Fall of Saigon, 1975."

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"The guttural stammer
of the chopper blades

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raising arabesques
of dust, tearing

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leaves from the orange trees
lining the Embassy compound.

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One chopper left,
and a CBS cameraman

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leans from inside its door,
exploiting the artful mayhem.

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Somewhere, a radio blares
the Stones, I like it,

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like it, yes, indeed.

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Carts full of files
blaze in the yard.

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Flak-jacketed marines
gunpoint the crowd away.

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The overloaded chopper strains
and blunders from the roof.

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An ice-cream-suited Saigonese
drops his briefcase.

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Both hands now cling
to the airborne skis.

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The camera gets it all--

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the marine leaning
out the copter bay,

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his fists beating time,
then the hands giving way."

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