WEBVTT

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When I was writing
this poem, I kept

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thinking about the idea
of how often we think

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the experience
we're having is only

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the experience we're having, and
yet so many people are having it

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too.

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And for a while,
I resented that.

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I thought, oh, you also
are having experiences?

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[LAUGHS]

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Oh, interesting, now I have
to be much more empathetic.

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[LAUGHS]

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And I think this poem comes
after that, the same thing.

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There's an awful story
in the news for days.

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You cannot sleep.

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It's too hot, it's too cold.

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It's just a story in the news.

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Not another human, not a whole
country, not another animal,

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just a piece of paper.

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Then you feel a little better.

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You go to the train, and
you wear your headphones.

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And you listen to a sad
song that sounds familiar.

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You pass a store
window and there's

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someone you don't know
walking where you're walking,

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with heels, a summer dress, hair
tied up too fancy for the week.

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The television
says tomorrow, they

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will shed some light on hell.

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How far do we need to
search for some bad thing?

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Hell is not beneath us.

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Not a bargaining chip
for your children.

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You come home on the train,
and you have bought gifts,

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and tried to be decent.

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This is how your life
will go, you know that.

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Day after day, awful acceptance.

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The soft life of
your footprints.

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You start to think
of the alternative.

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You shake your real
shirt off in the hallway.

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Would it be the same if you
were born in Mexico, life?

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Cuba, Ireland, 1974.

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You miss everyone, even the
people you read about today.

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You didn't know their faces
on the brain as if on paper.

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You sit on the balcony, which
is really a fire escape,

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but you call it the balcony
to make it sound better.

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You wear the slip your
grandmother gave you

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15 years ago.

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The weather is nice,
California nice.

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You sing a little,
call your family.

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You think, things aren't so bad.

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You say you love the world.

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So love the world.

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Maybe you don't even
say it for yourself.

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Maybe you move your mouth like
everyone moves their mouth.

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Maybe your mouth is the same
mouth as everyone's, all

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trying to say the same thing.

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