WEBVTT

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I will end with this poem.

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A small poem for Jennifer
Chang and Martha Rhodes.

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Sometimes it just
takes a phone call,

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Just a sweet word

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To alter the week's troubles,

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The month's troubles,

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The era's troubles.

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From a morning
without expectations,

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A surprise, a word
unanticipated and meant,

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Rare and jarring.

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Syllables moving one to tears

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When the winter sky
is a simple blue

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And nothing is there to impede
the dailyness of things.

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But the word grows from a note,

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A hello, a salutation,

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And plants itself like
a spring dandelion seed

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That by afternoon is full grown

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And blowing more seeds

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Lightly, sweetly,

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A coloratura of delight.

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And I feel as if I
were both the plucked

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And the child, plucking
the stem and twirling.

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How a single word can
set the world turning

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From one moment into
the next in startlement.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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