WEBVTT

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And that is in the
Fogg museum, which

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is a few blocks from my
house and in Cambridge

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in Massachusetts.

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Just a little meditation on
that painting, but it also

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moves outside of the painting.

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And continuing.

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"In his eyes and
hands brash assurance,

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delight masked as a boast.

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Though he knows his life
adjudged by force and denial.

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Max Beckmann, the Beckmann he
himself painted in his mid-30s.

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And if the mirror no longer
leans in a Bremerhaven attic,

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wedged between dollhouse
and chiffonier,

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if it's smashed and
exists now only as dust

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motes invading a
circle of lamplight

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or altering a North sea sunset--

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Well, he could never
be broken or dispersed.

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In black evening tux,
his face, thickening,

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confronted a smile aware
of its own vanities.

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Hair the color of
gravity trapped

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between hammer and anvil.

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In his right hand,
half smoked a cigar.

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The curl of smoke
invisible, insouciant,

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amused, and protected by the
complete lack of insouciance

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that is self-knowledge.

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The left hand held away from the
jacket shooing something off,

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palm out so his wrist shows.

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The skin there soft
and embarrassed

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by its rosiness,
pulsing lightly,

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like this woman's neck as
she stands with me waiting

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for the traffic signal,
its curve to her collarbone

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the place on a body where I
love to think the world begins.

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There, between two
or three freckles,

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all the world starting from this
corner, an Isuzu Jeep idling,

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garter belt tied
to its rear view.

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And by the cable TV truck, two
kids in maroon soccer togs.

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The crossing guard,
loafing, starting with them.

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Spreading to include the
violence of a summer evening.

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The MDC pools, the rib joints,
and talk of software licensing

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near the horse rider.

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The bronze mediocrity
of the horse's

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withers and past
the paddle boats,

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the kickboxers out
beyond them to fields,

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snapdragons, golden
rod, interstates,

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foxglove spreading
out like a foxglove.

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And starting here, I promise my
pleasure to be so large as to be

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right, even if
eventually doomed."

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