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<p><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">How beautiful is this garden?</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">How beautiful is this flower-lined path?</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">How beautiful is the air?</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Just a few steps away lies</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">that place</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Covered in a reddish-brown sludge</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">bumpy and rough</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">like the dried-up, broken-off pieces</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">on the red clay playground of my childhood—</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">trampled time and again—</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Like lines drawn by tiny twigs</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Through the cracks</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Sending its seeds flying—</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">A single dandelion</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Even if I never possessed them</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">One proud possession:</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">An unbreakable vitality</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">A single yellow dandelion</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">On rainy days</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">at sunset</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">even at a busy intersection in Manhattan</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">you quietly wave your hand—</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">you</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Who says you’re pitiful?</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Who says you’re unhappy?</span><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">Who finds you a nuisance?</span><br><br><span style="color: #141823; background-color: #fffef4;">I see you, mending the world’s unease.</span></p>
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