WEBVTT

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OK.

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This-- all right.

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I have friends that are like,
you talk too much between poems,

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but I'm going to talk
about this one too.

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This one was published online
with a poetry magazine.

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Well, it was in the magazine,
but then it's also online.

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And I got so much hate
mail for this poem

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from transcendentalist
aficionados

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or whatever they are.

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Because I believe, and I'm
pretty sure I'm right about it,

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that Herman Melville's story,
Bartleby, the Scrivener.

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Are you familiar with this?

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It is an indictment against
the transcendentalists.

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That story is all
about, like, oh, you

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want to be a nonconformist?

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What is happening-- what
happens to him at the end?

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Curled up in the fetal
position, eating ginger

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snaps, children's cookies.

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It's like yeah, you
should just die.

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Melville was hanging out with
men on boats, killing whales.

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And he worked on Wall Street.

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And the transcendentalists
are like-- they're

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like occupy Wall Street.

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He's Wall Street.

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This kind of thing.

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And then he's just like, sh.

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I think he was just
trashing them in that story.

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"The hill appeared
in many dreams.

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Never sure if it was real.

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Melville aimed his gun
at the transcendentalists

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and named it Bartleby.

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We can prepare our shadows
to be chewed apart or not,

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but the chewing will commence.

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I saw a spider eat a fly.

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I saw a praying
mantis eat the spider.

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I did not mean to
see these things.

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The spider caught my eye.

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Then the spider was gone
into the green body.

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We begin to discern waning time
as seasons through our organs."

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