Assured me everything was ok

That he was a great leader

That scientists were wrong

We could live for the day

So radiant so confident

Said if you wanted to be rich 

You just had to pray

I believed in her love

Opposites attract

They say

Never having time to read

Laughing in the face of experts

It was only a cold she said

When ...

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I’ve given giving

up a lot of thought

and have decided

I’m not that tough

to face the thought

of failure every day

not that hanging in

has been a thrill

there are in fact

a lot of people I could kill

but I’d have to deal

with that reflection

masochism saves me

the sweet pain of failure

the interior narrator

laughing at...

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I have limited empathy

I feel it first

Then I feel you through me

And I can’t remember a thing

Just a feeling of excitement

In vertiginous moments

How is it that

You remember

everything I’ve said

Every promise

in the heat of passion

Every doubt mouthed in bed

Lacking your crucial component

I want to feel it again

Life tricks us like tha...

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Writing your autobiography

I gloss over the way we met

I’ve edited your childhood

Down to a sentence

And I’ve taken some liberties

With your mid-life crisis

Which you’re about to have

If you’ve got no objections

Tomorrow we go to press

We’ve already sold out

The first run of one

and I’m suddenly

having it withdrawn

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We see patterns

We feel patterns

We believe in patterns

Everywhere

Survival mechanisms

Part of our evolution

We make inferences

Draw conclusions

And when we’re wrong

And we fall apart

We rearrange them

All over again

Taken in profile

We resemble

A slow orgasm

Stretched over a lifespan

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I love my problems

I’ve created every one of them

I want you to star in them

I’ll direct from my chair

There’ll be a big drama

With a really tiny budget

I’ve finished the soundtrack

Now on to special effects

Choose your own costumes

I’ll need to approve them

Could you give me a hand

Erecting the set

It might seem hopeless 

But I’m rewritin...

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Now that you’ve got my attention
What do you want with it

You want me to buy something
Then you’ll regret it 

As if we could face this longing
And then move away from it

Somehow transcending a hunger
We’ve always taken for granted

Now that you’ve captured my interest 
How will you keep it 

You know that it accelerates 
And you have to feed it 

Did I happen to mention
It ha...

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Been looking for myself

Everywhere

Have you seen me

I found myself with you

But that was a while ago

I really don’t know

What I’ve been

Up to since

Do you remember

What I looked like

How I tasted and felt

If you’ve seen me lately

Give me a call

As I’m lonely

Missing us both

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seems to know someone 

smiling at the hostess 

not moving from the punch 

cornering cupcakes 

nodding in approval 

snorting news relayed

hoovering removal 

fish, ham, and cake 

stranger at the party’s 

swallowing your body 

aiming righteous anger 

between various legs 

everything obsessing him 

coughing on your napkin 

avoiding certain traps...

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we had our health 

without the wealth 

just enough to 

wiggle around 

there was a plan 

we believed in 

it even had its own 

theme song 

and we knew it then 

it couldn’t stop anything 

we were just silent and cautious 

as we crept around our lives 

and we see it now 

try to recapture it somehow 

touching ourselves 

clo...

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dream about turning it off

think about getting up

fantasies become elaborate

as the mirror moves away

sweat you know nothing about

dreaming in the supermarket

words in advertisements

start to call your name

adventure adventure

waiting for you

giving up security

is all you have to do

adventure adventure

embracing your fears

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joined your cult

liked the food

the guy droned on

in that stupid costume 

but the dance segment

I could feel it too

who needs freedom

feeling that good

elation obvious 

words symbolic 

couldn’t take it serious 

that’s why we fell for it 

joined your cult 

after you left

felt emptiness

some regret

but I got promoted

and many rec...

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out of the corporate

funded educational base

between unaccounted for minutes 

on my paycheck 

I sometimes get to do what 

I’m supposed to 

when not shoveling

meaningless dreck 

I’ve been teaching a kid to read 

using basic flash cards 

twenty minutes at a time 

it’s not really that hard 

it takes a lot of patience 

particularly as a kid 

if ...

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I wanna have a world together 

That we build forever 

I wanna agree on what’s true 

Baby, I just wanna make sense to you 

I know you see things different 

it’s what gets to me 

Sometimes I feel you love to argue 

Just to generate heat 

But we need to establish premises 

We need to get real 

So much hangs in the balance 

When we agree to dis...

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You left the meeting

turned off the laptop took off the tie

burned the notes went outside

into a car drove out of town

passing people I went further on

until colors filled my eyes

forest greens blue seas and skies

forgot my name why I came

then decided I had to stay

you left the meeting

with a taste in your mouth

scent you remember

when you were y...

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Dunno how I ever lived there

Dunno why I ever wore that

Dunno what I was doing with you

But I don’t feel like I regret it

Can’t believe I’d eat that everyday

Can’t remember feelings I had

Don’t recall ever saying that

Can’t remember that photograph

You’d just have to ask my previous self 

I haven’t seen him around lately

You’d have to go back

I wouldn’t r...

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I work with crazy people

I’m surrounded by crazy people

I love crazy people

I hang on to myself

I don’t feel more than equal

I don’t think they’re superior

I admire them for letting it out

While I have stomach trouble

I was told I think too much

But I feel like It’s just enough

To hold on to what I’ve got

And navigate this future

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Tell me how to feel

I lost it years ago

And I’m concerned

I’m offensive

It’s the nature of generations

To articulate a rage

and then swallow it as they engage

Economically

I’m not feeling anything

In particular

Just kick me

If I do something wrong

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I'm very superficial and live on stuff like this to get me through the week: 

https://offthetracks.co.nz/bob-gaulke-pocket-blues/

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I live in a community

of half-fascists

under a hippie exterior

is hirohito sipping tea

I ponder cutting my mustache

into a hitler

but settle for

a bearded khomeni

by day I work with

the poor and downtrodden

by night I mock them

mercilessly

and my favorite thing

to do with you

miss holier-than-thou

isn’t appropriate to divulge

in a...

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We keep our better selves

In the back room

Promising them they’ll debut soon

We just gotta take care of

Something pressing that might

Require unorthodox methods

We tell her we love her

We even post her picture

She doesn’t know however

About our

Browsing

Histories

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I live on false hopes

They help me cope

I don’t have to know

Until it’s too late

By then I’ve measured

The depth of my fall

Thickness of the walls

I congratulate myself

For being so young

And dumb

And holding out

For nothing at all

I wear my heart on my sleeve

Where it can breathe

And the memories walk

Right through me

Without lea...

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even in the cruelest pain

she kept her sense of style

until they put in the catheter

she kept her dresses organized

while he was dying on a battlefield

he was thinking about that night

when his dreams came true

under a different moonlight

hostages with terrorists

come to an understanding about holidays

children with parents

compromise on ho...

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You stand for this

It’s what your life is

It’s just your role

You’ll fight for it

With your last breath

Even if you’re wrong

How you need

The world to make sense

How you feel

You’re at the center of it

As planets revolve

And species evolve

You’re a stone

She was probably right

About that fight last night

Now she’s gone

And yo...

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Just enough space

Not to move

Just enough money

Not to quit

Just enough love

Not to leave

Just enough time

Not to think

About your container

Its color and shape

Smoothness and thickness

Size and weight 

Your container 

What if it breaks

You start to notice

Hairline cracks

You think about

Everything said

You think about 

What y...

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a nation in your pockets 

an ideology to go 

go set up anywhere you’ll see 

your ideas remain remote 

you came at a delicate time 

shedding skin twice at night 

she couldn’t stand your ideas 

you were off; it was real 

how you love to smoke 

how you love to talk 

how your ancestors would recognize 

a lot of your tarof 

a very elabor...

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we could give them

say, South Dakota 

pave it over 

drop bologna 

they could pretend 

to live off the land 

form tribes 

attempt civilization 

we could wait until 

it freezes over 

metal cassettes

recorded over

send in a fleet 

of lifestyle counselors 

bags of wheat 

albums of photos 

and run them through 

t...

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Just to be clear

Every poem I write

Whether about

An old man on a train

Children dying 

In a war zone

Or the most distant star 

In the sky

Is about you 

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I woke up wanting this 

it was as clear as day 

nothing else mattered 

the feeling remains 

hunger subsided 

worries dropped away 

clock needles divided 

night turned to day 

I think you were there 

it was hard to tell 

as we moved in concert 

with everything else 

out of the trance I broke down 

I sewed myself up 

I just need to get to that...

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....poems into songs: 

https://bobgaulke.bandcamp.com/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/4ZT9TQV3ReO7WxL3ZkQVri

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/bob-gaulke/807780013

https://tidal.com/browse/artist/5405983

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You look like you’re moving

Got that feeling that

Everything’s happening

But I know you too well

You don’t know what you’re doing

Confidence is seductive

It seems like you have your bearings

But I hear your insides all night

Sounds like you’re booming

Maybe somebody loved you too much

Maybe you took that ball and you run

But weather’s getting cold

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My Project

you’re my project

something to protect

infused with a logic

I don’t understand

I give you my best stuff

it becomes transformed

you return me something

I never thought of before

I give you my attention

I don’t get it all back

I get the feeling I suspect

I’m your project as well

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I was terrible 

I know this now

because you’ve told me

I don’t know 

what I was thinking

but as you’ve won the present 

I have to accept 

the terms of 

surrender 

I do, however

reserve the right 

to create new memories 

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chasing that line

your entire life

entangled surrounded

from all sides

cat with a laser

closer then disappears

while you’ve been

inside the entire time

the distance makes

things delicious

you feel a weakness

from a certain perspective

the female form

rules your mind

you can only forget about it

for seconds at a time

the femal...

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I get a lot of prayers from people

who are like,

“Can you give me that one

again; I think I can handle it now”

Or “if I just had a bit more talent 

here I could make it”

Or even, “I wanna redo 

this decade”

And I don’t know how they 

read my silences

but if they just looked around

maybe they’d see how 

ridiculous they sound

...

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Please tell me about America

I like hearing the news from you

When it comes with your accent

It seems somehow more unreal

And maybe less painful

I can see the plot points clearer

I notice the elapsed timer

I pay less attention to the actors

And I'll tell you about faraway

Where we can be together

Where imaginations save us

Until things get ...

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The Burden

My parents gave me 
Shit-tons of kindness

I got so much of it
I can’t monetize it

I mostly just 
Give it away

Sometimes I use it up 
With difficult people
 
Sometimes on a Tuesday 
I go through three packs 

But there’s so much left
That I’ve been dropping it off

In places over the years
Other people get into it

And I go back 
And it’s still there

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What The Book Wants 

when you put it down 

you’re far from done 

thoughts demand action 

demanding blood

you could read another 

but you’d just move deeper 

as you search for signs 

of literacy in the world 

They stir up the memories

Rearrange the thoughts

I don’t think they resonate 

Unless they touch on love

And then it spills out of you...

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Under her skin
She dreams of violence
Punching her boss
Drowning her co-workers

The most tragic headlines 
Pale in comparison
With her balsamic
Idylls

Where to put all this
As it burrows deeper into 
Her waking thoughts 
Past her jokey edges

She thinks somehow
Her mind’s preparing her
For the earth’s future 
Or the next election

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what you fail to understand 
takes you by the hand
slaps you repeatedly
until the animal in you learns

he started to repeat himself
pulling attention away from the work
raising questions about his private life things never considered 

his popularity expanded greatly
he bought a suite of identical suits
working his entire life to get here 
now he wanted to torch the room

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Ignoring biology
Laughing at the gravity
You worship obscure ideas
Moving deeper afield

The day comes down like rain
Without stopping to wipe your face
You climb the steps to the space
To start from zero again

Relying on changing thoughts
Firing on pure impulse
The work takes on a form
Then you take it apart 

It tells you when you’ve had enough
You’re left feeling spent and undo...

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Our dreams get angry with us 

“How come we’re not part of the plan?”

“None of this political maneuvering 

between the chair and the bed.”

Our dreams screaming at us 

from everything heard and said 

“I can’t believe this-don’t let 

your heart get bought by your head.”

And the body moves 

calls a timeout 

Wining and dining 

And sleeping it of...

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Looks like they’re on crack
Dresses like the circus
Talks five times too fast
Probably escaped from prison

Frequently with coffee
Screaming now singing
Showing videos and cartoons
In hot water with administration

You wouldn’t work with them 
But you’re in a union
Sorry- I wasn’t talking about them
I was describing you

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I lived in Salvador, Bahia for 18 months in the early 00's. It changed my life. A bunch of songs I wrote then have been remixed and are now on streaming sites. You can click the link if you're curious: 

Sunga by Bob Gaulke

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I cry for my students 

cry for their parents 

cry for the species 

I haven’t even heard of yet  

I cry for the ignorant

cry for the intelligent 

cry for the rich 

I cry for the cognizant 

I take all these tears 

I fill a polluted ocean 

and start to swim 

towards that distant horizon 

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she stood on the platform 

with a chest and two bags 

there was an enormous man 

next to her about double my size 

I came up to meet her 

I kissed her and shook his hand 

she said, “These are my needs. 

I go everywhere with him”

I told her I had a small place

I wasn’t expecting a third 

she told me not to worry

he was vegetarian and mute 

we heade...

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under the civil surface 

there’s a beast in a cage 

filled with rage

chained to a million formalities 

despite decades of 

domestication 

centuries of education 

it hungers for a new reckoning 

some well-intentioned fool 

bends the rules 

and is lucky to get away 

in just one piece 

other reformers 

have become pot-boilers 

lacking only a pi...

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walk into the room silently 

don’t talk 

take your assigned seat 

and pull out your notebook

copy what’s on the board

I’m putting the timer on 

for three minutes

answer the quick write

“What does freedom mean to you?”

in your own words 

I’m coming around with my stamper 

to check your homework 

be ready to share

if anyone talks

you’ll be sta...

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she knew 

it wasn’t a suicide

he dared match his wits 

with hers

she burned 

him alive 

she turned herself 

in involuntarily 

she knew

she wouldn't carry him

not with his 

heavy sides

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when you put it down 

you’re far from done 

thoughts demand action 

demanding blood

you could read another 

but you’d just move deeper 

as you search for signs 

of literacy in the world 

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you move like the weather

think like an anthill

eating the horizon

feeling this anguish

touched by your feelings

your needs like my wings

we dance without moving

without speaking we sing

everything changes me

thoughts rearrange me

you might find it strange

sixty-forty you’re the same

dancing through the boredom

imagining our paper kingdom

lo...

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I need to stop

But don’t know how

Could you help me stop

Just one more

Then we’ll stop

On the floor

Too late

They’re all gone

It was good

Was it bad

It was the best thing

I ever had

The memory haunts

The pain sticks

But I haven’t

Any regrets

We could go another round

I could quit that job sell everything I own

For that ...

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I got very little the bank owns it all

I recently got laid off from my job

looking for more work in security 

I’ve got my faith and my faith has me 

I get excited when he comes on TV

he says the things I need to hear 

he puts people in their place 

they’re getting ahead of me 

he’s a rich strong man 

I’m gonna be like him 

we got all these for...

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America throws its books at me 

I use my teacher’s look 

then I have to agree 

it's a poorly-written text book 

she calls me late at night 

asking for advice 

could I help draft a bank letter 

about the unfairness of these times

she's returning bottles 

asking for a dollar  

making eight dollars an hour

taking care of my mother 

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since I was five

I’ve had to fight to stay alive 

momma’s little soldier’s 

never been off the front lines 

from the scenes at home 

to the enemy’s mind control 

to the captive at school 

I’ve resisted 

sometimes I’ve found allies

only to see them die 

I thank you for your time  

in the trenches 

from the grind of this job 

...

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Everything reminds me 

Of something else

Every gesture

Every act 

I’ve seen too much 

Yet nothing’s happened 

I fall into a dream 

About the past 

It makes me anxious 

About the future

Could something good 

Still come out of it 

When the space between 

What we know and do 

Starts to extend beyond 

What we can address 

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you were following a line 

it evoked something 

deep in your memories 

you stopped for a moment 

now you can’t remember 

what day it is 

you had this plan 

now the plan has you 

you serve its purpose 

but haven’t got a clue 

lost in your own design 

a pretty way to lose your mind 

taking the outcome on faith 

as if your life...

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Anger Management, Day 2 (click for video)

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U and I 

thirteen letters apart

we don’t try 

to move closer what’s wrong 

love from a distance

framing every desire

in space and time

we get lonely then why ask Y

you’re never far 

from my thoughts 

occupying all space 

in my heart 

absentee 

landlord 

with all the tea

from china 

I dream about you 

writing around in circles 

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People are traps 

With secret passages 

They don’t reveal 

Anything up front 

Until you’re lost in them 

Then you’re tied up

Kissed, beaten, 

and robbed 

And you keep 

Going back 

Because you 

Forgot something 

Trying to get 

The better of them 

Falling deeper 

Into their thoughts 

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I don’t fit in 

it’s not a sin 

I appear martian 

I’ve got reasons 

I can’t blend 

anyone can tell 

my opinions 

seem out of season 

it’d be a lot easier if we all got along 

I wish sometimes I was wrong 

but I see what you do, hear what you say 

logic and reason move the other way 

I won’t conform 

to a norm 

boiling a planet 

on a ...

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Why are we so obsessed
With reproducing
When we can’t even
Manage what we have

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I have many hometowns several wives 
Countless children
I stay in situations until
I can’t do anything with them 

I have a million plans 4 billion dreams
Thousands of religions
It’s a lot of work keeping
Everything running sometimes it doesn’t  

I rely on this one love 
I survive on this one love
And no other 

I would die without this 
One love my one love
Oh my mother and ...

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Your Epitaph 

through an extreme 

act of will 

she was able 

to block out 

parts of the world 

she didn’t like 

this left her poor 

with few friends 

and very happy

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Click here

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I went to the fortune teller, baby

I  said, I went to the fortune teller, today

I said, how can you deceive all these poor

people 

I’m calling the state bureau of 

consumer affairs

I saw the witch doctor the other day, baby

I saw the witch doctor the other day, baby

I said, I’m thinking of doing a master’s 

in ethnomusicology. 

Could I sp...

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 Luba  

Met a woman named Luba 

She came from Ubatuba 

When I slept on her sofa 

She showed me to her llama 

His name was Earl 

They’d met in Machu Pichu 

While she completed her research

They’d became inseparable

Her Doctorate

On the mating habits of 

Nomads of Peru 

I read it from 

cover to cover 

On my way to work 

I loved Luba 

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the poet stands with his pen 

against a wall of armed men 

graffiti artist punched and kicked 

making a clip on the way to the gig

he thinks of Kitty Genovese 

Phil Ochs and hootenannies   

imagines the beatnik chicks

black tights and cigarettes 

singing to a circle of older men 

holding guitars like airplane kits 

with a feeling absorbed agai...

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That pain 
That pain we take with us
That makes us
Who we are

We don’t know its name 
Not what it does
As we grow through it
Roots n’ all

We try therapy 
We try religion
Drugs I’m afraid  
it’s just existence

You left me before I left you
It was something deep 
From childhood 

And I pulled and pulled
But couldn’t get us out
I do feel guilt
About not being swallowed up 

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looking out at life 

asking for something 

never knowing enough 

’til it’s gone missing 

as if you could hear it 

in the air 

melody 

in your ear 

might have one 

chance left 

might not 

be deserving 

getting away with it

just playing with it 

not giving a name to it 

just too much thought 

you can’t explain it

you just feel it...

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The inner you

And the outer you

Live together

In your shoes

The outer you’s

So responsible

Making sure

You get to work

The inner you

Starts a fire

Causing impossible desires

And heartburn

The outer wins

Most rounds

Banishing Inner

To odd hours

Slowly taking over

Weeknights and weekends

With worries anxieties

Disappearing ...

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how do you want it, boss

extra mayo 

how do you want it, chief

cut in quarters 

how do you want it, honey

no tomatoes 

how do you want it, habibi 

crispy bacon 

coffee-black 

with five sugars

coming up you got it 

mi primo

order’s up my friend

pay at the register 

five-twenty-five

seven-twenty-five

ten seventy-...

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I dreamt I was a brand
People sprayed me, ate me 

Recommended me
To their friends

There was some controversy
About how healthy I was

But the marketing department
Told me this was an advantage

And I went everywhere 
On both sides of the conflict

I left a good impression
I didn’t need product placement

One day things turned
And I was denounced

I plunged and
Took a job in...

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touring the continent 

with counterfeiters 

on the corporation’s nickel 

drinking in the 

neighborhoods

where white girls don’t go 

improvising 

spotlessly while drunk 

the label asking for more control 

never having 

to work a job 

barely ever playing a show 

skipping through   

hundred thousand more dollars

before anyone pulled the pl...

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As the references fade
And new humans are made
You can trace your own 
Ascendancy in decades

A few centimeters
Off the ground 
Soon you’ll be above the crowds
Still thousands below the clouds
Blowing with the wind 

They can’t hear you down there
They can see your outline 
Colorful shapes against the sun
Ghosts floating through daytimes

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The middle aged bike rider stops
Three feet away from me 
Ignoring my salutation 
He’s on his own

The teenaged boys share
Stories of fighting 
other gangs
They’re on their own

The city workers on their break
Eating sandwiches complaining 
About boss
Are on their own

The retired white joggers 
Without masks who don’t 
Make way on the path
Are on their own 

I’m typing this on...

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you’d always wanted 

to go with them 

no matter where it was 

it was something about how they 

breathed into their destination 

making it more exotic than it was 

if it was for school 

a job or love 

movement was the thing 

now you’re surrounded by 

four narrow walls 

and a lot of packaging 

it must be something primal 

keep moving 

or ...

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Be gentle with us
We’re really sort of weak
Of course we can lift things up
But it’s another thing to feel

We need so much approval 
We’re still looking for our moms 
And we’re ready to smash everything
If we can’t get what we want

That’s why the lort gave us ignorance
We’re easy to fool
You’ve just got to stay ahead of us
And give us lots of approval

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Young musicians 
Have three years
To make it
Before their parents
Demand a return
On their investment

Young musicians just
Finding their voice
When unexpected 
Pregnancies 
Force a choice

Playing with such
Passion and conviction
The energy of youth 
Controlled demolitions

Young musicians 
Against numbers
And statistics
Frontline workers
On the fight to be human

Old musi...

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Your work lacks suffering
I hear the happily satisfied 

Middle class tones underlying
Everything you say

And there’s not enough space
In our collective hearts for it

After a hard day it doesn’t 
Ask the right questions

Or provide the right
Solutions

And I’m happy you’ve found love
But if you write about it

It just might fly out from under 
Your pen and then your songs

M...

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You’ve got that layered look
That I’m into
Truths from various 
Points of view 

Moods that change
With the weather
I bring my mittens
And sunscreen to the picnic

I have to admit
I like all of them
I’m getting better at
Following directions

Taking online courses
In meteorology 
Disaster relief
And seismology 

Just one more
PhD 
And we can 
Get married 

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The single white male in public
Feels naked without his Internet

He looks around for an army
Among people of all shapes and sizes

Someone yells “Hey”
Hoping it’s for him

He’d settle for a conversation
With someone he feels beneath him

The single white male in public
Ashamed of what his couch has done to him

Fights his inner voices 
Doubting he’ll try this again

Goes ho...

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The shape of your nose

Your political views

The smell of your food

Your style of shoes

The smile on your face

Your ancestral claims

The fascist architecture

Your dozen names

There are many reasons to hate

And only one to love

The sound of your laugh 

The historical past

Your religious views 

The length of the queue

Your favorite te...

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an eternity of shared housing 

the fraternity of your thirties

ambitions schemed on

parents’ credit cards

saw your figure conquering

thought late bloomers in the raw

never again to feel 

camaraderie those nights saw

several grown up

becoming irritating dads and moms

one died young 

any age now feels too young 

two sold out 

fear ...

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and you keep buying things 

to keep the ghosts away 

the packages come at 

all hours many never opened

books and music collections 

with the plastic still on 

and you think of the relationships

gone the eyes of love wanting things 

and you move on and you wonder

how much to move all these things 

and maybe you can’t move 

but think of those...

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and one more thing 

over here

and a little more 

over there 

and something 

becomes clear

something else 

can disappear 

when you’ve built up 

your whole life

and it comes a moment 

to decide 

and you know 

you might not survive

but the hope 

it stays in play 

when you’ve always 

strategized 

boldly 

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We were never asked about
We had doubts if 
Any of it fits 

You try to get along
With it 
Until something better
Presents

But I don’t think
We can ever be
Put back together
Never with that
Same sequence

It was always 
Too much pressure 
And I don’t think 
They ever achieved
What they wanted 

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In your life you’ve always
Felt alone
That’s the American way
So a big part of you
Hopes
Death might be 
Some kind of upgrade

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Studying flowers
Painting pictures 
Dreaming surrender 
Automatic processes

David Attenborough 
Voice overs 
Losing items of clothes
Then a shot of vanilla
And a scone to go

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everything today just feels

momentous

It’s one of those thankful

to be alive times

when you could just imagine

the Hollywood trailer fastcutting

and zooming between scenes of

you doing your laundry

making lunch and putting on socks

another mammal In existential pain

smiling their life away

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Something hits to the heart

For three minutes he can allow

Himself to cry in front of the

Absolute beauty of the song

Something so true only for him

He thinks that explains his

Material comfort and his

Spiritual vacuum

(His ancestors smile at him

in the shaving mirror)

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Tell me again how I was born

The poet and musician
Sit awkwardly together
In this bus called a song

Slowly they talk together
Each feeling 
The other’s a knob

“How could he not know
Any theory yet insist on 
Opening his mouth?”

“How could he not know 
A thing of beauty never 
Having read anything
More than a card?”

Then before the door closes
The most beautiful muse
Sits ...

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You wield those traditions deftly
No one would ever confuse me

For a dude like you who can 
Speak with the weight of history

Sing like a record collection
Or play like a session musician

Most times I feel inadequate 
Other times I just thank god I can’t 

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I’ve got this desire for
Nothing I understand

All the old amusements
Are mute before it

And I see nothing on the horizon
Nor anything in this love we know

To quench it I keep trying 
Religion I just keep trying 

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sunday evening it’s buzzcocks 

lesson planning it’s too hot 

wait until the buzz wears off 

sleep’s demanding one more hour

monday meeting supervisor 

in the bathroom, dull razor 

got the files, fly's undone 

let you slide forget promotion

setting records in your head 

crossing finish lines in bed 

only seventy pages left 

making plans for a band reunion 

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I need to know you’re there

even when we’ve never met 

need to know you care

I live in this world of men 

and the lion’s falling 

circled on all sides 

and he’s roaring 

for all his pride 

thoughts are haunting 

mistakes are taking names 

memories are stalking 

completely relentless 

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I really don’t know what 

we’re here for 

I mean ostensively, 

yes, I understand 

the job description 

but when you apply 

the seven degrees of “Why?” 

to the problem

I don’t see how 

anyone’s better off

and maybe the hippies 

were right, you know? 

how do we make 

everything stop 

hurting so much

I don’t feel suicidal 

I just wan...

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Tripping out

Making bad art

Acting like those characters

Documentaries

Warn you about

The high is good

Share it with a world

Engaged in all the evils

History reads you about

Fuck our sanity

This inhumanity

This greed you’d swear

Grows on trees organically

Standing in the center

of all this watching TV

Get out of the center 

Move to the...

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Milk

Yogurt

Sausage

Cheese

My enemy and I

Pray to the same god

Using different rituals

Built from the same bones

My enemy and I

Share the same name

Accented differently

Our signatures are the same

Yet some fool thinks

We can paper over differences

With a couple of drinks

And pregnant pauses

And some fool believes

That we’d give...

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Hot and Sad

flavors combined

in one mind 

hot and sad

that’s fine

don’t take my tea 

with sugar 

don’t eat more 

than two donuts 

"that’s enough" 

the stomach growls 

sensitivities of life 

cut like a knife 

that’s what I like 

the rest is too dull  

going through our heads 

the time to respect

all that development 

tha...

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multitasking 

building my tomb

brick at a time 

swimming to you 

in the moonlight 

against an enemy 

well-fortified

making love

to the spy tonight

plotting a decade

of my rule 

driving a truck 

out of driving school

eating ice cream 

working out 

supporting the fascists 

plotting my downfall 

they ask me if 

I can ...

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meet these people go to their parties

afraid they’ll tell you how they make their money

dating daughters to the Restoration 

hiding bodies in woodgrain finish

you can’t get over the stink 

under perfume and mask

afraid they’ll take off their faces 

without the decency to ask 

can’t get over the stink 

ambivalence’s last act 

arise all ye cocktails soul falls...

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It was written

In bubblegum wrappers 

And Sunday advertisements

There was some confusion

Misdeliveries, malfunctioning

Prototypes, and rain

But we can see now

How the shapes come together

I don’t know how to explain 

I was made for you

It takes a bit of getting used to

No owner manuals,  instructions

Or how-to’s

I might run ...

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tell me something about myself 

the subject you know so well 

strike those secret chords 

which you’ve known of all along 

it doesn’t really need to rhyme 

there’s no point in wasting time 

when we could be making love 

or better yet singing a song 

your antennae pull me in 

there’s no more interference 

I’m a picture in your mind 

painted over a million ...

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You can feel it all

When you concentrate

When you were small

It was difficult

You couldn’t wait

To be an adult

Now it all feels

A little too late

The memory drill goes deep

Hitting water when you sleep

Salted tears proteins release

Rings of years, fingers of trees

If you squeeze hard enough

Images appear

From somewhere underground

Keep drillin...

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Insomnia

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What’s up with Steven?

spends all period on his phone

generally polite 

will get a worksheet done 

but then wants 

to sit at the desk

or start a fight with Kenny or Ishar 

has this faraway 

look in his eyes

too heavy for someone that young  

I know there’s nothing ostensively  

wrong

and you’ve talked to his mom 

so just endure him fo...

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had a conversation with you

it was pleasant

I almost forgot

you were dead

had to remind me

in a tone of admonishment

I would soon

need waking up

I left feeling

many things at once

reassurance

sweetness and loss

and realized then

I’d have plenty

to reflect on

before my time had come

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in a thousand faces 

in a hundred places 

over the ages 

we find ourselves again 

names have changed 

feelings remain 

not so much as a do-over 

as a slight mutation  

dusting off strategies 

replacing batteries 

what was almost tragedy 

becomes a trite poem   

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they call at night 

sharing what they got 

running down the list   

we start to talk 

voice changes 

pauses grow 

something softens 

goes low 

and loneliness seems 

a small price for all this 

unhappiness hidden 

in blurs of purchases 

giving encouragement 

prying little we apply 

love from a distance 

humor from a lifetime 

of wa...

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start more stories 

than I can finish

love more women 

than I can sleep with

intentions misplaced 

plans mislaid

savings decimated 

faiths betrayed

I burn decades 

like paper

cutting out lives 

for later

I don’t claim to understand

what I’ve done it doesn’t matter

I guess I never thought 

I could hold onto something so elus...

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he studied collected 

understood

researched experimented 

found proof

observed hunted captured

preserved

was confronted attacked 

overturned

bound captured

let loose 

and everything he learned 

flowed from him into her

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As we plunged deeper into these subjectivities monks sworn 
to orders

we emerged into a reality characterized by 
the sweet familiar 

guided by an inner voice zealously held 
in confidence

feeling empowered by the sense 
of our own significance  

arriving too late for the introduction
too late for the fanfare

we comforted ourselves with sounds of their climaxes
from the bottom...

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Friends

We’re not that different you and I

We don’t stand still we constantly try

To reach to grow to evolve

We never say no it never stops

Want to be global we want to intimate

Want your attention want you to sing it

If we don’t get our ways we fantasize

Destruction that’s what makes us

Different it doesn’t

A lust for life competing against

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Bleh!

Self-consciousness
Our great achievement 

As a species
Doesn’t seem to help

In most circumstances
Making us clumsy 

Insecure and lowering 
Our esteem to the point 

Where we’re forced 
To become artistic

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we were immaculate so clean 

before the world came in 

directing our own dreams 

wrapped up in skin 

could hear the moment’s beat 

feel everything begin

now we’re on our knees  

begging forgiveness

I was a tailor 

you were a cop

she was a sailor 

we never got caught  

now we’re in jail 

for god knows how long 

scraping pl...

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bully

when I was a child 

I was high strung 

as a teen I 

thought too much 

maybe later a 

sensitive soul 

now that we’re alone

what do we got

rooms to play in 

places to imagine 

shades of mystery 

light and dark 

this interior life 

keeps us alive 

when everything outside

ain't looking up 

where’...

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I’m in love with you 

only from certain angles

If we are to 

be together

we’ll have to rearrange 

the furniture

and spend a fortune 

on lights

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one day you started to care 

for the family you don’t have 

it hit you all at once 

you saw them everywhere

saw her face in his face

saw yours in theirs 

started to read her expressions

couldn’t stop connecting 

and in your solitude 

something started to bend 

started to crack 

where the light came in 

and the family you don’t have

saw themselv...

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opinions are changing

demands remaining

inside it’s raining

clouds in your eyes

little voice says

I’ve got a better idea

body snaps to attention

with a buzz in the mind

these things called you

are all around me

they’ve gotten inside me

there’s one thing to do

I can make you happy

I make it snappy

there’s more energy

held in reserve

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You make a poor scientist
Conducting experiments 

On your own nature
You almost get yourself killed

Then as a politician
Trading in deception

She can’t live with yourself 
While you mostly can 

Graced with a third act
Without friends to hold you back

You meet on the edge of who you are 
Without looking down or back

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It just occurred to me
Nobody told me this

I think you should know
I’m secretly fantastic

Wanted to keep it hidden
But couldn’t resist

The world has caught up to me
Living like I do

Eating the wrong things
Finding solidarity in solitude

Only somewhat 
Believing in itself

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I check my bank account

The robots are spending

Over my amount

I buy generic brands

When I see you

I blow it all over again

The weather inside is delightful

The paintings are in bloom

The sofa becomes a jungle

When you enter the room

I’m left dealing with

these same feelings

In contexts

that don’t make sense

Years later memories return

imprinted on our ...

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The sock wandered off
Before it was hung

Chocolate disappears
Without a sound

The money uses a
More delicate touch

You ghost me
Without a second thought

I lose everything
It must be a lesson

That somehow
I’m not learning

I wait
With an empty bowl

Preparing
For an eternity

The honest man
Strung up last night

Our last chance
Taking flight

Memories
Merge with ...

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And we’ll never do 
Anything together

Why does that 
Turn me on

To know we
Can be so close

And be 
As good as gone 

We’ll live these possibilities forever
Without taking the plunge 
In this way I can always say
Nothing ever went wrong

You’re perfect 
Bunch of tricks
Poses attitudes
Good lighting 

You’re studied
Knowing what 
Makes me tick 

Evoking some 
Deep print...

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Most every morning
On the 26 bus 

She tells us 
About Jesus 

And the way 
She knows him

Sounds so much
Like the love she never had

The husband 
That's dead

The sweetness of a childhood
In Manley’s Jamaica

And it allows me
To stop fixating 

On Satan
For a few moments

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listening to alain souchon 

while taking out the garbage 

seeing mom in my face 

thinking of this loneliness

apps and what you’re doing

and I’m not calling 

imaging another night 

a different body 

some promise 

of escape 

in the tightness 

of someone else  

there’s pizza left 

friends missing 

and that promise about 

yoga and starti...

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Haptics 

lost through a hole in our pockets

not sure where we went

just when we’d started to feel 

we were everyone else

we go back to the drink 

to records and cassettes 

to all the things that make us 

feel sheveled and kempt 

pressing ourselves into times 

needing proof to feel alive

I touch you now

I need just to check 

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Her eyes left her phone
Only to scrutinize apologies

I said they were jokes
She said oh please

I asked her about her books
They’re not for you I’m told

I understood and the more
She turned away the more

I confessed my secret fantasies
She put them on tic-toc

Maybe you could be an Ed meme
She said

I said she could do
Anything she liked

Running my cards
Through a swiper

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I have no secrets
And few thoughts
What I’ve held onto
Hasn’t taken off

I’m learning how to
Shut my mouth
Another few decades
And I’ll have gotten it

And you’re free to walk
Through my mind 
And take
Anything you like

You could even stay 
For a while
It’s cheap 

And the colors are bright

I have no secrets
And they’re not here
They visit 
When I’m alone

They get too ...

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ours seems to be running low 

something to get it pumping 

to get us off the sofa 

more blood

medics used up their stores 

laid out across the street 

we already knew he was gone 

more blood

screaming flashing their phones 

the team went ever further 

knocking down both posts 

more blood 

biting into his earlobes 

carnivore down ...

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It helps to keep a distance

If it’s too late- call maintenance

They leave a mess; hard to clean 

What’s worse- some will stain

People are messy

(Wear gloves)

They will try to get inside you

(Don’t let them)

They will often go behind you

(Forget them)

Bury them under work

Create distance with points of view

Be difficult they’ll learn

But not in ...

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Lockdown drills

are the only time we’re sanctioned
to huddle with children 

as we don’t have any white
male students it’s hard to imagine 

who’d be a mass shooter
perhaps Mr. Dobkin, 

the science teacher 
who always seems upset

It’s hard not to giggle with the kids 
under desks with the lights off

I guess the drills are a good preparation for bouts of sudden closeness, 

s...

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