WEBVTT

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The next poem--

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I'm sorry it's not going
to get any lighter --is,

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it's a poem based on an
account of a rape in Seattle.

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I was living in the
area at the time

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and I was moved by the story.

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I wrote this poem [INAUDIBLE]
which has a sort of "This

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Is The House That Jack
Built" rhythm to it, in part.

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And a couple of-- actually,
several years later,

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I went into the open books
of the poetry emporium

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in Seattle and
the owners told me

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that a woman had
come into the store

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and bought up all
the copies-- not

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that there were many
--of Candy Necklace that

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were in the store, and
she turned out that she

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was the victim of the rape.

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And I said, "Oh".

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I said, "Oh, was she upset?

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I hope she wasn't upset."

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And they said, "No, she
was glad that the poem had

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been written."

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It's called, "Can That Be She."

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"This is the bathroom where
he let her clean herself up,

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disgusting blood-rag.

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This is the arise-and-color
that held the pistol.

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This is the pistol that shot
light into the shadow men

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at the firing range.

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These are the bullets her watery
fingers jammed into the pistol

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for god's sake mean it.

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You can imagine the
yelp of the animal boy.

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He pissed himself
here, in the jeans.

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This is the hand
the gun yessed yes

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she could wait one more
minute before firing again.

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It was because 911
said don't kill him

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that she didn't kill him.

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The voice wanted
to know his age,

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she asked him how old are
you going to be when you die.

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He said twenty-one.

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She said to the
voice twenty-one.

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These are the policemen
who broke through her door,

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she wasn't hearing them.

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This is the nakedness
shocked back into itself

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as they stared.

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They wanted to wrench
her nose straight again.

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Jagged teeth she must
have bitten the little

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bastard to the bone.

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The dental assistants
called her Amazon

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she knew she wasn't
in this world anymore.

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You can hear the
women's voices lined up

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in the courtroom to hector him.

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This is the violent
boy look at me bitch

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when I come sitting sour alone.

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The same who'd felt sunflower
tissuey pooled and warm when

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he got back in.

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The same who hit
her nose her ear

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when he entered her because
he would not give in.

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This is his sentence, 66 years.

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This is hers.

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How climb the ladder
to the woman she was?

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How cut the new screen
without slicing her skin?

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How wake her without letting
her see the woman no longer

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in the world?"

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