WEBVTT

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Well, this next poem.

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Well, it was
actually a two-poem,

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which I have managed to
get down to 2/3 of a page.

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I'm happy to report.

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It's called Change My Evil Ways.

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Some days, it is my one wish
to live alone, nameless,

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unfathomable, a drifter
or unemployed alien.

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But that day, the
movie was over.

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I found myself
walking in Cambridge.

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And on the common, there were
some conga players, as well as

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the guys with xylophones with
finger pianos and tambourines.

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Have you ever seen minnows
flopping from shallow

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to shallow, doing somersaults?

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The drummer's hands
were pale fish

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like guppies thrashing light
in a clear plastic bag,

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as blurred as children
careening around

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lawn sprinklers in the careening
mercuric blue dusk of August.

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Dulse wavering.

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Hair shook out while
somebody dances.

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Some days, it isn't
a life alone I need.

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But one that supplies the
luxury of forgiveness.

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It was a day like that.

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Luckily, past the
tobacconist, a kid

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sang his song about
changing my evil ways

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and strummed a three chord blues
plugged into a boom box that lay

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at his side like a wolfhound.

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And I put my ear
close to his snout.

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And a little cautious at
first, I began to listen.

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