WEBVTT

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I'm going to read a
couple of new poems.

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I work for the Goldman
Institute on Aging.

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And one of the liabilities
of doing this work, working

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with older people who
are not very well,

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is that occasionally,
they die on you.

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So I'm going to read this
new poem called "A Wish."

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"I wanted to give you
something for your pain,

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but not the drug du jour or a
kind word this side of cliche.

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Something you wouldn't find on
a talk show, in a department

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store, or dark alleyway.

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I wanted to give you
something for your pain,

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but I couldn't imagine what.

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Frankincense, myrrh, even gold
seemed too plain, too plain

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and too gross.

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I needed something that wouldn't
have occurred to you or me,

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or even nature, a
creature more fabulous,

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more imaginary than you'd find
in a rainforest or tapestry.

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[AUDIO OUT] screen.

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Some exotic anodyne an alchemist
or astrophysicist would be

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envious of, a chemical
reaction, an astral refraction,

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an out-of-body, out-of-mind,
one-of-a-kind transport from

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your pain that would
last longer than a day,

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deeper than the past.

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I would have founded
a whole new religion

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if I thought that would suffice.

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As for love-- sacred,
profane, or both,

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I wanted to give
you something that

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didn't arrive with a roll of the
dice, and was hard to maintain,

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and had a knack
for disappointing.

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I wanted to give you
something for your pain

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that didn't smack of a
sorcerer's trick, or a poet's

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swoon, or a psychiatrist's quip.

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Nothing too heavy,
or spacey, or glib.

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I'd have given you the
moon, but it's been done.

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And besides, its desolate dust
and relentless tendency to wane

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might have only
exacerbated your pain.

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If I could have given you
something you could depend on,

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could always trust without a
second thought, I would have.

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A splendid view,
perhaps, or a strain

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of music, a favorite
dish, a familiar tree,

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a visit from a genie, who, in
lieu of granting you a wish,

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would tend subtly to your
every need and never once tire,

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never complain.

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But when all was said and done,
or hardly said, not nearly done,

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I was as helpless as you.

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Could you tell?

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Or were you so overcome your
pain was all that mattered?

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It seemed to me we
were a kind of kin:

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willing to mind its
bold suspensions,

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but the heart, once shattered,
never quite matching

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its old dimensions.

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And yet you persevered
in spite of pain.

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You knew to hold hope
as lightly as you

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held my hand, a phantom
grasp, a clasp that seemed

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to come from the other side.

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And your genial
smile made it plain.

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You were pleased by my wish
to please, and then you died."