WEBVTT

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I'm going to read six poems.

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Five poems?

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[LAUGHTER]

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That I've written
since this book.

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"Spider Plant."

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"When I opened my
eyes this morning,

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the fact of it shooting out
long, thin, green runners

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on which miniatures of
the mother will sprout,

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and that each of these offshoots
could, in its own time,

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repeat this, terrified me.

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And something seemed awful
in the syllables of the word

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'Brenda,' sounding inside
me before they made a name,

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then making a name
of no one I've known.

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I had been dreaming I was
married to Patty again.

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She kept coming on my tongue.

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And I knew if I put
my cock in, we'd

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have to stay together this time.

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But I wanted to and did.

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And as I did, the sadness and
pleasure of our nine years

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washed through me as a river.

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Yet I knew this wasn't
right, it couldn't work,

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and though we were
now enmeshed forever,

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I began to rise from
my body making love

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with her on the bed and hover
at a little distance over both

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of us.

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That's when I awoke and
saw the spider plant."

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