WEBVTT

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The third autobiographical
poem actually

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results from a trip to
Florida, where I met--

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after reading-- I
think I'm not sure

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whether she was American
or an English lady.

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"Florida."

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"Not one poem about
an animal, she

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said, in five, six
volumes of poetry,

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not one about The
Peaceable Kingdom.

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An accusation.

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Was she from the RSPCA?

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Your contemporaries have all
composed inspired elegies

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for expired beasts.

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Told of salmon
flinging themselves

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up the sheer waterfall.

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Cold crows in black rages,
loitering near motorways.

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Parables of foxes and pheasants,
owls and voles, mice and moles,

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Cats, bats, pigs,
pugs, snails, quails.

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So why can't you write
one, just one haiku?

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Oh, I said.

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Oh!

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Then wondered if she knew the
story of the starving dowager.

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The lady looked as solemn as No.

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Well, during the
French Revolution,

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the dowager, becoming
thinner and thinner,

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invited other lean
aristocrats to dinner.

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That night the guests all, I
continued, slowly roasting on

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a rotating spit, the
dowager's own poodle, Fido,

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who proved to be most succulent.

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So they made a feast of it.

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Afterwards, the dowager
sighed, fingering the pearls

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about her neck, sighed
and said in noble French,

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I translate, what
a damn shame Fido

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isn't alive to eat up all
those nice crunchy bones left

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upon the plate.

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My story over, I
waited for applause.

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We'd never cease from
crying, she said,

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if one insect could
relate its misery.

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Quite, I said,
looking at my paws.

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In Florida, I saw a floating
logs change and chase

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and swallow up a barking dog.

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Hell, I said, an alligator?

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A museum snake, too, in
Gainesville, Murder City,

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I can't forget poor black
priapus in an empty case

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lifting up its head
for food not there.

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With your gift I'd make
a poem out of that.

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So try, she said, do try and
write a creature poem and call

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it 'Florida.'

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I closed my eyes,
and she receded.

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I thought of tigers
and of Blake.

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I thought of Fido and his bones.

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No, no, she cried,
think of Florida.

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I saw the hotels in Miami Beach.

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I heard waves
collapsing ceaselessly.

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No, no, she said, think again,
think of Florida, its creature

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kingdom.

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Like a TV screen, my
imagination lit up

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to startle the ghost of
Blake with my own eidetic ads

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for Florida.

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First, that black
frustrated snake erect.

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Then, two grapefruit
inside a brassiere.

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Open your eyes, the
lady screamed, wake up.

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I'm a poor bifurcated
animal, I apologized.

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Eagle beagle, bug
grub, boar bear."

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[APPLAUSE]

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