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The last most recent book I've
done for kids is called Brats.

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And it's a collection of
little short poems, four lines

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long or so, about nasty brats
who get what they deserve.

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But the challenge of writing
a little short thing like this

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is to tell a complete
story in four lines

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and round it out
somehow, close it.

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Nowadays, I know it's
an old fangled view

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to think that poems ought to
close with definite closure.

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And some people say
they don't need to

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and they can just peter out.

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I always liked what Yeats--

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Yeats said a poem should close
with a click like a closing

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box.

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[LAUGHS] Well, the
challenge is to get

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the click in a very few lines.

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Anyway, here's one of these Brat
poems about a brat named John.

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John, while swimming
in the ocean,

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rubbed sharks' backs
with suntan lotion.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Now those sharks have skin
of bronze in their bellies,

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namely, John's.

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[LAUGHTER]

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