WEBVTT

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[APPLAUSE]

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Oh, my God.

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Thank you.

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No, thank you.

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I just wanted to keep talking.

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Thank you.

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Thank you so much.

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What an honor for that
to be here with you

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all for the invitation,
Diana, to be reading

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with Carl, an old friend.

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This is such a beautiful space.

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Tucson is such a beautiful city.

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I'm so honored to be here.

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I'm a little choked up.

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That was a lot.

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Thank you.

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Thank you.

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So I'm going to read from
my latest collection.

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This is part of the poet, the
Texas Poet Laureate Series,

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and it's a collection
of new and selected.

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And so I'm going to read
a little bit from here,

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but I visited Claire
McLane's class earlier today.

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And I think she asked if I
would be reading anything

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from my new manuscript.

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And so I brought it with me,
and I'm actually working on it.

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I was editing in the
plane, so I didn't

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want to take it out of order.

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So I just brought it with me.

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So I'll read a couple of
poems from there, too.

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But I'm going to start
off with a new poem,

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and it's called "On
Eating Rattlesnake."

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"I remember it only once.

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I was small.

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Maybe it was the one my father
shot off the front porch.

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Maybe it wasn't.

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The men stood around the fire.

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The women sat inside.

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I sneaked around the men
hiding myself, slither.

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I have seen it many times.

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The long stripping, one fist
pulling skin, another pulling

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flesh, and how the
kills were celebrated.

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Rattles and skins
hung like tapestries.

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The innards left to wild things.

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When it was passed
around hot from the fire,

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the women did not partake.

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I dug in rough and curious.

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There was nothing more
unashamed than a rattler.

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No apology in its tongue.

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It would never be cute.

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I had to eat it.

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I had to know this."

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