WEBVTT

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I'll just read one more
from the sequence, and then

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two more poems.

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Since I'm running
out of water, that

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must be a sign I'm
running out of time.

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Sorry, I think I can make it.

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A lot of water in this poem, I
think that'll see me through.

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The Lotus Flowers.

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The surface of the
pond was mostly green,

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bright green algae reaching
out from the banks,

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then the mass of water
lilies, their broad round

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leaves rim to rim, each
white flower spreading

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from the center
of a green saucer.

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We teased and argued,
choosing the largest,

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the sweetest bloom, but when
the rowboat lumbered through

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and rearranged them, we found
the plants were anchored,

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the separate muscular stems
descending in the dense water.

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Only the most
determined put her hand

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into that frog slimed pond
to wrestle with a flower.

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Back and forth we pumped across
the water in twos and threes,

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full of brave adventure.

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On the marshy shore, the
others hollered for their turns

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or at the hem of
where we pitched

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the tents, gathered firewood.

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This was wilderness, although
the pond was less than half

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an acre and we could still
see the grand magnolias

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in the village cemetery, their
waxy white conical blossoms

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gleaming in the foliage.

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A dozen girls, the
oldest only 12,

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two sisters with
their long braids,

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my shy neighbor, someone
squealing without interruption.

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All we didn't know about
the world buoyed us

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as the frightful water
sustained and moved,

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the flowers tethered at
a depth we couldn't see.

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In the late afternoon,
before they'd

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folded into candles
on the dark water,

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I went to fill the
bucket at the spring.

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Deep in the pond's
exposed tree roots

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formed a natural arch
a cave of black loam.

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I raked off the skin
of leaves and needles,

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leaving a pool so
clear and shallow

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I could count the pebbles
on the studded floor.

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The sudden cold splashing up
from the bucket to my hands

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made me want to
plunge my hand in

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and I held it under feeling the
shock that wakes and deadens,

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watching first my fingers,
then the ledge beyond me,

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the snakes submerged
and motionless,

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the head propped on
its coils the way

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a girl crosses her arms
before her on the sill

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and rests her chin there.

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Lugging the bucket back
to the noisy clearing,

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I found nothing
changed, the boat still

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rocked across the pond, the
fire struggled and cracked

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as we fed it branches and
debris into the night,

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leaning back on our
pallets, spokes in a wheel,

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learning the names of
the many constellations,

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learning how each fixed
cluster took its name not

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from the strongest light but
from the pattern made by stars

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of lesser magnitude, so like the
smaller stars we rowed among.

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