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I'll read a poem by a
friend of mine, Marie Howe.

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She's written a lot of
really truly wonderful poems

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about the death of
her brother by AIDS.

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And they're just, of course,
just about human life too.

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But that's sort of
in the background.

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It's that sort of absence of
a person who was once here

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is in the background,
as I guess it always is.

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It's called "Buddy," which
is the name of a dog.

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"Buddy"

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"Andy sees us to the door,
and Buddy is suddenly

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all over him, leaping and
barking because Andy said walk.

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Are you going to walk
home, he said to me.

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And Buddy thinks him and now.

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And he's wrong.

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He doesn't understand
the difference

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between sign and
symbol, like we do,

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the thing and the word
for the thing, how

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we can talk about something
when it's not even there,

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without it actually happening,
the way I talk about John.

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Andy meant soon.

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He meant me.

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As for Buddy, Andy meant later,
when he was good and ready,

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he said.

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Buddy doesn't understand.

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He's in a state of agitation and
grief, scratching at the door.

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If one of us said 'Andy'
when Andy wasn't there,

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that silly Buddy would
probably jump up barking

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and begin looking for him."

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