WEBVTT

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This poem is dedicated
to Michael Cuddihy.

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It's not-- it's not
addressed to him,

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it's addressed to the
man I live with, but--

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but dedicated to Michael.

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I had some difficulty with
my health at one point,

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and I found out that
it was sort of--

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it wasn't going to go back
to being normal again.

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And so, I guess, I
became frightened

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and started getting up
extremely early in the morning

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and trying to use up
every inch of the day.

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And this poem takes
place in my kitchen,

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which is very white to begin
with, in the light of dawn.

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And as it comes up in the
first half of the day,

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it makes it extremely white.

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It's really a blazing room.

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"Still Life With
Window And Fish."

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"Down here this morning
in my white kitchen

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along the slim
body of the light,

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the narrow body that would
otherwise say forever

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the same thing, the beautiful
interruptions, the things

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of this world, twigs
and power lines,

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eaves and ranking branches
burn all over my walls.

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Even the windowpanes are rich.

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The whole world outside
wants to come into here,

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to angle into the
simpler shapes of rooms,

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to be broken and rebroken
against the sure coordinates

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of walls.

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The whole world outside--

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I know it's better, whole,
outside, the world--

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whole trees, whole groves--

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but I love it in
here where it blurs,

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and nothing starts or ends, but
all is waving, and colorless,

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and voiceless.

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Here is the fish-spine on the
sea of my bone china plate.

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Here is a fish-spine
on the sea of my hand,

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flickering, all its
freight fallen away,

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here is the reason for
motion washed in light,

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fanning, gliding upstream
in the smoke of twigs,

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the rake against the shed
outside, the swaying birdcage

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and its missing tenant.

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If I should die
before you do, you

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can find me anywhere in this
floral, featureless, indelible

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surf.

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We are too restless
to inherit this earth.

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[APPLAUSE]

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