WEBVTT

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I'm moving now to
Sharks in the Rivers.

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My favorite review of a
book I've ever written

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is of this book
on Goodreads, back

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when I used to read
reviews, and it says--

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this book is called
Sharks in the Rivers,

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but there are more
birds in it than sharks.

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It's true.

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They are not wrong.

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Here we go.

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Actually, I'm just
going to read the title

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poem because it's true.

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"Sharks in the rivers will
say unbelievable things

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to each other in
the early morning.

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Our blue coming
up from our roots,

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our water rising in our
extraordinary limbs.

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All night I dreamed
of bonfires and burn

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piles and ghosts
of men and spirits

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behind those birds of flame.

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I cannot tell anymore.

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When a door opens or closes, I
can only hear the frame saying,

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walk through.

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It is a short walkway
into another bedroom.

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Consider the handle.

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Consider the key.

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I say to a friend how
scared I am of sharks.

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How I thought I saw them in the
creek across from my street.

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I once watched for them, holding
a bundle of rattlesnake grass

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in my hand, shaking
like a weak leaf girl.

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She sends me an article from
a recent National Geographic

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that says sharks bite
fewer people each year

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than New Yorkers do, according
to health department records.

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Then she sends me on my way
into the city of sharks,

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through another doorway.

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I walk to the East River
saying, sharks are people too.

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Sharks are people too.

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Sharks are people too.

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I write all the things I need on
the bottom of my tennis shoes.

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I say, let's walk together.

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The sun behind me
is like a fire.

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Tiny flames in the
river's ripples.

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I say something to God, but
he's not a living thing.

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So I say it to the river.

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I say I want to walk
through this doorway.

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But without all those
ghosts on the edge,

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I want them to stay here.

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I want them to go on without me.

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I want them to
burn in the water."

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