WEBVTT

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A friend, just in a
casual conversation

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one night, told me that the
definition of thanatopsis,

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which I had always thought
was the study of death,

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is in fact--

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dictionary definition is--
the study of last things.

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I immediately thought
what a great title

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that would be for a poem.

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And I ended up planning
a book that I'm

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working on now that's
going to be called Studies

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of Last and First Things.

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It'll be my usual writing about
death and oblivion, et cetera,

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but also writing about some
aspects of my own childhood.

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There's a simple
little poem that's

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the first memory
that I have simply

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called, "The First Thing."

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"You are lying in
either a crib or cot

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on the screened-in porch
of your grandparents.

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Arlington, Massachusetts, 1942.

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The light outside makes a haze.

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It almost hurts.

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You will live in that
house at Brooks Pond

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after your parents'
divorce, but you don't

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have to think about anything.

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A stiff legged fox
just stepped out

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of the shadows near the
porch, cross the road,

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and you've heard about
foxes, heard of them."

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