WEBVTT

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I'm going to read you a
small poem about amphibians.

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We have a broken
down swimming pool

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in the back of the
house in Ithaca,

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which is a pleasure
in the summer.

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One of the things which is
not so terrific about it

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is that every summer morning,
I have to go out with a skimmer

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and try to save the
lives of various animals

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furiously treading.

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"All season, we've tried to
keep frogs from diving deeper

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into the chlorine laced pool.

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We run skimmers twitching
to scoop them out.

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But no use.

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Three frogs dead in
the filter again today.

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Weightless things,
water-pithed, their limbs

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cast open wider
than in field life.

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Each muscle lax
as a broken shade.

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Wan eyes hug shut as if
in light contemplation.

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And out of sight, beneath
the limp leathery skin,

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a genetic code mixes
like alphabet soup.

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Each tiny ladder split rungless
now for this final climb

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down to Earth."

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