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Somebody wrote "Tender" in the novel's margins
 As if to remind about a precious force
 In the next paragraph, the protagonist
 Sat down on the belly of a dead horse
 The author, I read, fell from a window
 Many stories high
 Stretching out to feed pigeons
 Or a stray cat depending on the website
 Whether or not I have
 Or was given a little more time
 There just doesn't seem to be much room
 For a reply
 And it's possible it only belongs
 Where it happened, fine
 According to John
 Fear softens into doubt
 To what do I cling and think is mine
 No reply
 "Think the last time I came up this way I was younger"
 Said your aunt, isn't it a good line?
 We found the garden abandoned
 And that night became dark over
 Chicken and wine
 Documentarians tossing lemmings
 Stunned over the edge
 Wartime juveniles shot and martyred
 For the crime of stealing eggs
 Dinner, by the way, was divine
 I drank the last of the coffee
 Waiting for you to rise
 Whether or not I have
 Or was given a little more time
 There just doesn't seem to be much room
 For a reply
 And it's possible it only belongs
 Where it happened, fine
 According to John
 Fear softens into doubt
 To what do I cling and think is-
 Whether or not I have
 Or was given a little more time
 There just doesn't seem to be much room
 For your reply
 And it's possible it only belongs
 Where it happened, fine
 According to John
 Fear softens into doubt
 To what do I cling and think is mine
 No reply
 Reply, no