WEBVTT

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So this poem, like some number
of poems in American poetry,

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had its genesis in the
Tuesday Science Times page.

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There was this glorious
article on July 29th, 2020

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about mosses in the Mojave
Desert and especially online,

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the images were fantastic.

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So this poem is called "Mosses."

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And since we're--

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I don't know about
the desert here,

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but I bet if these mosses
live in Mojave Desert,

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they live here.

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"Mosses."

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"For hypolithic mosses, it
seems, four percent of daylight

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is right.

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They live, the headline says,
by sheltering under a parasol

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of translucent quartz.

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The crystal scatters
the light's ultraviolet,

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dilutes its heat, traps the
night's condensed moisture

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to moss-sized rain.

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I think of these
mosses and consider.

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Perhaps we, too, are mosses,
evolving to the parch

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of our self-made Mojaves.

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Unable to bear the full
brightness, the full seeing.

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To recognize fully the Amazon
burning, the Arctic burning,

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the monarchs' smoke-colored
missing migration.

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An experiment not meant to last.

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And yet we found shelter within
it, we pondered our lives

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and the lives of
others, thirsted, slept.

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To the implausible green
of existence, for better,

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for worse, we offered our four
percent portion of praises,

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for better, for worse,
our four percent

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portion of comprehension."

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Thank you very much.

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