WEBVTT

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[APPLAUSE]

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OK, so let's see what else we
got in here that I can give you.

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Here's another kind
of a narrative poem.

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"Pseudacris Crucifer."

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The father begins to make the
sound a tree frog makes when

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he comes with his son and
daughter to a pail of tree frogs

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for sale in a deep
South flea market

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just before the
last blood of dusk.

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A tree frog is
called a tree frog

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because it chirps
like a bird in a tree,

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he tells his daughter, while
her little brother, barely

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four years old, busies
himself like a small blues

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piper with a brand new
birthday harmonica.

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A single tree frog can
sound like a sleigh bell,

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the father says.

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Several can sound like
a choir of crickets.

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Once in high school,
as I dissected a frog,

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the frog opened
its eyes to judge

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its deconstruction, its
disassembly, my scooping

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and poking at its soul.

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And the little girl's eyes go
wide as the tree frog's eyes.

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Some call it the spring peeper.

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In Latin, it's called
pseudacris crucifer.

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False locust, toads
with falsettos,

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their chimes issuing below
the low leaves and petals.

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The harmonica playing is
so otherworldly the boy

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blows with his eyes closed.

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Some tree frog species spend
most every day underground.

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You don't know-- they don't
know what sunlight does at dusk.

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They are nocturnal insectivores.

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No bigger than a green thumb,
they are the first frogs

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to call in the spring.

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They may sound like
crickets only because they

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eat so many crickets.

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Tree frogs mostly
sound like birds.

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The tree frog overcomes its
fear of birds by singing.

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The harmonica playing
is so bewitching,

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the boy gathers a crowd in a
flea market in the deep South.

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A bird may eat a tree frog,
a fox may eat the bird,

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a wolf may eat the
fox, and the wolf then

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may carry varieties of music
and cunning in its belly

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as it roams the countryside.

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A wolf hungers because it cannot
feel the good in its body.

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The people clap and gather
around with fangs and smiles.

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The father lifts the
son to his shoulders,

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so the boy's harmonics hover
over varieties of affections,

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varieties of bodies
with their backs

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to a firmament
burning and opening.

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You can find damn near anything
in a flea market, pets, weapons,

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flags, farm fresh as well
as farm spoiled fruits

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and vegetables, varieties
of old wardrobes,

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a rusty old tin box
with old postcards

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and old photos of lynchings
dusted in the rest of the box.

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You can feel it on the tips of
your fingers, this rust, which

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is almost as brown as the father
and the boy on his shoulders,

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and the girl making the
sound a tree frog makes

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in a flea market
in the deep South

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before the last blood of dusk.

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Just before the
last blood of dusk.

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Just before the dusk.

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[CHEER AND APPLAUSE]

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