WEBVTT

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Well, back in the
cities, so to speak,

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this is a poem called Midpoint.

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And it's about-- well, it
started being a poem about

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cities--

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I wanted to write about
the cities where I lived.

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And the kind of
things that I was

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writing about different
cities, always the same thing.

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I mean, it was basically
the same kind of thing

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that I was loving,
regretting in each city.

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And I cut it down drastically
to kind of algebra

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where there are really
basically only two places,

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A and B. It's one of
those formulations almost

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like 19th century novels.

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Where they say, somebody,
an S married to P had a son

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G, that kind of thing.

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So this is down to A and B.
So if you hear it, you only

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hear A and B, that's
like a little algebra.

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And it's called Midpoint.

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No sooner had I left A than I
started doubting its existence.

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Its streets and noisy crowds.

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Its famous all night
cafes and prisons.

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It was dinnertime.

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The bakeries were closing.

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Their shelves empty
and white with flour.

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The grocers were loading
their iron grills.

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A lovely young woman was
buying the last cassava melon.

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Even the back alley where
I was born blurs, dims.

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O rooftops!

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Armadas of bed sheets and shirts
in the blustery crimson dusk.

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B, at which I'm destined
to arrive by and by,

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doesn't exist now.

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Hurriedly, they're
building it for my arrival.

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And on that day,
it will be ready.

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Its streets and noisy crowds.

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Even the schoolhouse
where I first

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forged my father's
signature, knowing

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that on the day of my departure
it will vanish forever

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just as A did.

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