WEBVTT

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10 years old who I-- whose
piano recital I attended.

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And I was in one of those
moments in which you can see--

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you think you can see
the whole life of someone

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given to you in--

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"At Becky's Piano Recital."

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"She screws her face up as
she nears the hard parts,

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then beams with relief
as she makes it through,

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just as she did, listening
on the edge of her chair

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to the children who
played before her,

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wincing and smiling for them
as if she doesn't regard them

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as competitors and
is free of the need

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to be first that vexes
many all their lives.

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I hope she stays like this,
her windows open on all sides

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to a breeze pungent with
sea spray or meadow pollen.

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Maybe her patience this
morning at the pond

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was another good sign, the
way she waited for the frog

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to croak again so she could find
its hiding place and admire it.

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There it was, in the reeds,
to any casual passerby only

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a fist-sized speckled stone.

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All the way home she wondered
out loud what kind of enemies

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a frog must have to make it
live so hidden, so disguised.

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Whatever enemies follow
her when she's grown,

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whatever worry or
anger drives her

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at night from her room
to walk in the dusty rain

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past the town edge, her
spirit, after an hour,

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will do what it can
to be distracted

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by the light of a farmhouse.

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What are they doing up there
so late, she'll wonder,

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then watch in her mind's
eye as the family huddles

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in the kitchen to worry if
the bank will be satisfied

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this month with
only half payment,

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if the letter from
the wandering son

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really means he's
coming home soon.

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Even old age won't cramp
her if she loses herself

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on her evening walk in piano
music drifting from a house

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and imagines the upright
in the parlor and the girl

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working up the same
hard passages."

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OK.

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I'll end with two poems.

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Let's see.

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Where are they?

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This manuscript I
just completed is

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called The Outskirts of Troy,
hence all those allusions

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to Troy.

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I mean, they're supposed
to weave-- work together

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in the book.

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And this is the last poem in
the book, as I see it now.

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