WEBVTT

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This one-- and, oh, and this
is the entire collection

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is a love letter to
Beirut and to Lebanon.

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This is "Bench."

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This is the bench we choose
because it has more shade.

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These are the trees, this
is the Mediterranean.

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We sit here, we fix
the sea with our eyes

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and it does not fight back.

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It is wide and clear enough to
embrace our talk, our illusions.

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We talk.

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We have young hands.

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We move them because
we believe they matter.

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We read mostly the
day, but also poetry.

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We find out it's better
when it's spoken.

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People pass by, look, but we are
not being theatrical, just true.

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I inhale a cigarette,
perhaps for show, but also

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for the light bitterness.

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This is the bench.

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It has a small engraving.

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It says someone
relatively important

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declared this the most beautiful
view in the Middle East.

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We laugh at those Westerners
romanticizing our sea,

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And yet, we come
back here every day.

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And yet, we plan
to come back here

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when our hands
have bulging veins

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after all the distractions
of land in between.

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Thank you.

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[APPLAUSE]

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