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[APPLAUSE]

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When she got out--

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when she got out
of the sleep lab,

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she conceived my goddaughter
Zoe as she told me

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between the taxicab
and her apartment.

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As I explained in a
class, this is entirely

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possible in New York City.

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Utterly possible.

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Yes.

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He says, demanded
in New York City.

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It's true.

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And I thought I would write her
daughter, my goddaughter, Zoe

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Klein, a birthday poem.

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Zoe's just old
enough now to know

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that there is a
book in her house

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in which there is a poem about
her and about her mother.

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She's very nice.

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"Ultimate immigrant who
passed through the Ellis

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Island of your mother's
hips with a name

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slit loose from its
dialect of cell and bone,

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welcome to the
citadel of our lives.

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We listened for the hoof beats,
your heart, for nine months.

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And then your mother
nearly died hospitably

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early to give you light.

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Like an Hawaiian princess,
you are carried everywhere--

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on a litter, in a carriage,
by the arabesque of one's arm.

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Your feet have never
touched ground.

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You, who can't even
roll over when you want,

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creamy little tyrant, control
the lives of all around you.

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Sound leaps from your face.

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And your ribs quake each
time the downy world chafes.

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Last week, you first smiled
because grown ups acted silly.

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Things elude you, but you
can grasp absurdity already.

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By mistake, you suck your wrist
instead of mother's nipple.

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We laugh.

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With your operatic cries
and Michelin man pudge

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and seepages from below and
eyes alert as twin deer,

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you have no sense
of self, whatever.

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Zoe Klein, goddaughter
with a hybrid name,

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living in the soft new
crook of your mother's arm,

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with a face like a Dalai Lama's
or a small Neanderthal's.

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Born out of a dream by two,
you live a dream by halves now.

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Slumberous, milky-breathed.

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In time, love will answer
questions you didn't raise.

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A belled marvel, the
cat of your inquiry

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will stalk through a world
brighter and more plural

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than you guess, where a baby's
fingerprints, loopy weather

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systems, one for
each tip, will leave

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you spellbound that matter
could come to this."

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