WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.940 align:middle line:84% Wow, Monica, that was gorgeous and gutting. 00:00:02.940 --> 00:00:06.190 align:middle line:84% And it's such an honor to read with you tonight. 00:00:06.190 --> 00:00:08.670 align:middle line:84% Thank you so much to the Poetry Center, 00:00:08.670 --> 00:00:12.630 align:middle line:84% to Diana and to Tyler, and to everyone. 00:00:12.630 --> 00:00:14.098 align:middle line:90% And TC, you stole my line. 00:00:14.098 --> 00:00:15.390 align:middle line:90% I'm supposed to say, hey y'all. 00:00:15.390 --> 00:00:17.207 align:middle line:90% I'm the one who-- 00:00:17.207 --> 00:00:18.540 align:middle line:90% I usually say it, but that's OK. 00:00:18.540 --> 00:00:21.010 align:middle line:84% But thank you for that gorgeous introduction 00:00:21.010 --> 00:00:23.010 align:middle line:84% and this does feel like a revival, 00:00:23.010 --> 00:00:26.920 align:middle line:90% so I really appreciate that. 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:29.340 align:middle line:90% All right, I had a few requests. 00:00:29.340 --> 00:00:31.500 align:middle line:84% Felt like a rock star, thank you. 00:00:31.500 --> 00:00:33.387 align:middle line:84% So I'm going to start with a new poem, 00:00:33.387 --> 00:00:34.470 align:middle line:90% it's actually a long poem. 00:00:34.470 --> 00:00:37.380 align:middle line:84% And I'm so happy that you read your long poem, Monica. 00:00:37.380 --> 00:00:41.220 align:middle line:84% I've been thinking about the long form and poetry and what 00:00:41.220 --> 00:00:43.740 align:middle line:84% that means with the personal epic. 00:00:43.740 --> 00:00:46.080 align:middle line:84% There's a really great podcast from Rachel Zucker called 00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:48.000 align:middle line:84% Common Place, and she was interviewing 00:00:48.000 --> 00:00:50.010 align:middle line:90% Roger Reeves and Natalie Diaz. 00:00:50.010 --> 00:00:52.625 align:middle line:84% And Roger was talking about how he was writing long poems. 00:00:52.625 --> 00:00:54.750 align:middle line:84% And she said, why are you writing these long poems? 00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:56.875 align:middle line:84% And he said, because he's an African-American poet, 00:00:56.875 --> 00:00:58.860 align:middle line:84% he said I found myself, in the real world, 00:00:58.860 --> 00:01:00.610 align:middle line:84% that when a white woman walked next to me, 00:01:00.610 --> 00:01:02.790 align:middle line:84% I was subconsciously moving out of her way. 00:01:02.790 --> 00:01:05.605 align:middle line:84% And he said, I wanted to stop doing that on the page. 00:01:05.605 --> 00:01:07.230 align:middle line:84% And I literally had to pull my car over 00:01:07.230 --> 00:01:10.200 align:middle line:84% and I was like, what did he just say? 00:01:10.200 --> 00:01:12.180 align:middle line:84% And I realized I had been doing that. 00:01:12.180 --> 00:01:13.710 align:middle line:84% Especially after the 2016 election, 00:01:13.710 --> 00:01:16.710 align:middle line:84% I felt that the world was trying to make me feel very small. 00:01:16.710 --> 00:01:22.920 align:middle line:84% And I wanted to fight back against that wall and kind 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:24.510 align:middle line:90% of chase a lyric swagger. 00:01:24.510 --> 00:01:26.160 align:middle line:84% That I didn't possess in my real life, 00:01:26.160 --> 00:01:31.685 align:middle line:84% but that I could somehow chase in my work. 00:01:31.685 --> 00:01:33.060 align:middle line:84% So this poem kind of barreled out 00:01:33.060 --> 00:01:35.880 align:middle line:90% the first Black Bachelorette. 00:01:35.880 --> 00:01:38.687 align:middle line:84% Anyone watch The Bachelorette series? 00:01:38.687 --> 00:01:40.770 align:middle line:84% I didn't either until I found out Sharon Olds did, 00:01:40.770 --> 00:01:41.978 align:middle line:90% so I was like, you know what? 00:01:41.978 --> 00:01:45.360 align:middle line:84% If Sharon watches it, I can watch it. 00:01:45.360 --> 00:01:48.120 align:middle line:90% 00:01:48.120 --> 00:01:52.080 align:middle line:84% "The First Black Bachelorette" When Brian was kissing Rachel 00:01:52.080 --> 00:01:55.410 align:middle line:84% and slid his hand inside her hair, her long, long hair, 00:01:55.410 --> 00:01:57.968 align:middle line:84% I wondered if he felt threaded tracks of weave. 00:01:57.968 --> 00:01:59.760 align:middle line:84% And what he thought when he felt her weave. 00:01:59.760 --> 00:02:00.900 align:middle line:90% Was he startled? 00:02:00.900 --> 00:02:02.040 align:middle line:90% Or did he know. 00:02:02.040 --> 00:02:05.020 align:middle line:84% But when he reached for her, I felt his fingers on my scalp 00:02:05.020 --> 00:02:05.520 align:middle line:90% too. 00:02:05.520 --> 00:02:07.200 align:middle line:90% I did, I swear through the TV. 00:02:07.200 --> 00:02:08.460 align:middle line:90% I was wincing. 00:02:08.460 --> 00:02:10.110 align:middle line:84% My white guy doesn't like fake things, 00:02:10.110 --> 00:02:12.930 align:middle line:84% but I like my fake hair long and my real hair protected, 00:02:12.930 --> 00:02:14.280 align:middle line:90% my glory tucked and hidden. 00:02:14.280 --> 00:02:15.940 align:middle line:90% Something easy and fast. 00:02:15.940 --> 00:02:17.580 align:middle line:90% I'm hoping it will grow too. 00:02:17.580 --> 00:02:19.620 align:middle line:84% I wonder who does Rachel's hair on the show, 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:22.230 align:middle line:84% blending her leave out with her natural hair. 00:02:22.230 --> 00:02:24.750 align:middle line:84% Who slips her edges down with good grease and a bore 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:27.900 align:middle line:84% brush when the wind blows back her baby hairs? 00:02:27.900 --> 00:02:30.390 align:middle line:84% There was an episode once on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air 00:02:30.390 --> 00:02:31.895 align:middle line:84% with the actress, Tisha Campbell. 00:02:31.895 --> 00:02:33.270 align:middle line:84% The premise-- they were on a date 00:02:33.270 --> 00:02:35.410 align:middle line:84% and stuck in a basement for hours. 00:02:35.410 --> 00:02:39.540 align:middle line:84% She stripped off her weave, fake nails, contacts, and eyelashes. 00:02:39.540 --> 00:02:42.180 align:middle line:90% She molted. 00:02:42.180 --> 00:02:45.060 align:middle line:84% Will then asks, now what else on your body can 00:02:45.060 --> 00:02:46.890 align:middle line:90% I get at the mall? 00:02:46.890 --> 00:02:49.920 align:middle line:84% RuPaul says, we're all born naked and the rest is drag. 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:53.400 align:middle line:84% Derek has a list of funny drag names and I want one. 00:02:53.400 --> 00:02:55.140 align:middle line:84% I want to be called what I really am. 00:02:55.140 --> 00:02:58.450 align:middle line:84% Or what I pretend to be, which I guess, in a way, is me. 00:02:58.450 --> 00:03:00.450 align:middle line:84% Or someone who I think might be beautiful enough 00:03:00.450 --> 00:03:02.018 align:middle line:90% to be approached, discovered. 00:03:02.018 --> 00:03:03.810 align:middle line:84% Someone who doesn't have to pay for movers. 00:03:03.810 --> 00:03:06.420 align:middle line:84% Someone who walks into a party and doesn't have to be anxious 00:03:06.420 --> 00:03:08.220 align:middle line:84% because the privilege of their beauty 00:03:08.220 --> 00:03:12.540 align:middle line:84% makes them at rest and people find vacations in their faces. 00:03:12.540 --> 00:03:16.050 align:middle line:84% I require something fake, woven and glued stuck to my body, 00:03:16.050 --> 00:03:17.100 align:middle line:90% even not of my body. 00:03:17.100 --> 00:03:19.770 align:middle line:90% How does a body even start? 00:03:19.770 --> 00:03:21.840 align:middle line:84% Sometimes my eyes feel thick and weird 00:03:21.840 --> 00:03:24.130 align:middle line:90% from fresh eyelash extensions. 00:03:24.130 --> 00:03:26.970 align:middle line:84% In the beginning, my head hurt from the braided ropes of hair 00:03:26.970 --> 00:03:29.370 align:middle line:90% encircling my scalp tight. 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:31.290 align:middle line:90% But you want it tight, she says. 00:03:31.290 --> 00:03:33.960 align:middle line:84% You want the cornrows so small that your fake hair 00:03:33.960 --> 00:03:35.310 align:middle line:90% looks passable. 00:03:35.310 --> 00:03:37.000 align:middle line:90% And hope you take the pain. 00:03:37.000 --> 00:03:39.930 align:middle line:84% It takes so damn long to be almost beautiful. 00:03:39.930 --> 00:03:43.140 align:middle line:84% I've sat in salon chairs all day with Black women behind me, 00:03:43.140 --> 00:03:45.060 align:middle line:90% laboring and taming my mane. 00:03:45.060 --> 00:03:48.360 align:middle line:84% I like the pattern crop circles carved into my scalp right 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:50.910 align:middle line:84% before the wefts of somebody else's Brazilian hair 00:03:50.910 --> 00:03:53.160 align:middle line:84% are sewn like human icing into mine. 00:03:53.160 --> 00:03:54.510 align:middle line:90% Delicious. 00:03:54.510 --> 00:03:58.260 align:middle line:84% I want the fire to smell a type of threat in me and back away. 00:03:58.260 --> 00:04:00.750 align:middle line:84% I want the fire to know I was already consumed, 00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:03.330 align:middle line:90% burn inside my belonging. 00:04:03.330 --> 00:04:04.530 align:middle line:90% There is a hankering. 00:04:04.530 --> 00:04:08.070 align:middle line:84% A hungry choir that craves money and porn, meaning my thoughts 00:04:08.070 --> 00:04:10.650 align:middle line:84% are well lit, stage, and faking it too. 00:04:10.650 --> 00:04:14.610 align:middle line:84% Even my soul is pre-oiled, fluffed, bleached, wax nubile 00:04:14.610 --> 00:04:17.070 align:middle line:84% looking and staring down the camera to ash. 00:04:17.070 --> 00:04:19.200 align:middle line:84% The trick is looking like you like it. 00:04:19.200 --> 00:04:20.790 align:middle line:90% Like you enjoy getting slammed. 00:04:20.790 --> 00:04:23.070 align:middle line:84% Which is why I like being groomed, getting yanked, 00:04:23.070 --> 00:04:24.660 align:middle line:90% painted, cut, and plucked. 00:04:24.660 --> 00:04:27.600 align:middle line:84% I've been on all fours as a woman ripped me from my center, 00:04:27.600 --> 00:04:29.580 align:middle line:90% where I split in jeweled halves. 00:04:29.580 --> 00:04:32.275 align:middle line:84% I did not yell as I bit my lip, grabbed the corners. 00:04:32.275 --> 00:04:33.900 align:middle line:84% I enjoy how people look at me when they 00:04:33.900 --> 00:04:35.250 align:middle line:90% think I might be beautiful. 00:04:35.250 --> 00:04:36.990 align:middle line:84% I enjoy porn best when I think they might 00:04:36.990 --> 00:04:38.468 align:middle line:90% be enjoying themselves too. 00:04:38.468 --> 00:04:40.260 align:middle line:84% When there might be real pleasure at stake, 00:04:40.260 --> 00:04:41.250 align:middle line:90% but who can say really. 00:04:41.250 --> 00:04:44.040 align:middle line:90% Not showing pain gets you paid. 00:04:44.040 --> 00:04:46.860 align:middle line:84% It takes a lot of money to look this trashy, Dolly Parton says. 00:04:46.860 --> 00:04:49.320 align:middle line:84% And yet Rachel, Rachel who scratches 00:04:49.320 --> 00:04:51.900 align:middle line:84% your dandruff like Teacake and Chapter 11 in Their Eyes 00:04:51.900 --> 00:04:52.860 align:middle line:90% Were Watching God. 00:04:52.860 --> 00:04:55.290 align:middle line:84% Who detangles and combs your hair with deep conditioner? 00:04:55.290 --> 00:04:56.550 align:middle line:90% Who wraps your hair at night? 00:04:56.550 --> 00:04:58.528 align:middle line:84% Has Brian seen you in your silk bonnet yet? 00:04:58.528 --> 00:05:00.070 align:middle line:84% You know it's real when you're riding 00:05:00.070 --> 00:05:01.810 align:middle line:90% on top with your hair wrapped. 00:05:01.810 --> 00:05:04.360 align:middle line:84% Lala says she was never ugly, just poor. 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:06.670 align:middle line:84% I want my teeth fixed and chiseled, 00:05:06.670 --> 00:05:08.380 align:middle line:90% but veneers are so expensive. 00:05:08.380 --> 00:05:10.390 align:middle line:84% I hide my coffee stained crooked things. 00:05:10.390 --> 00:05:13.960 align:middle line:84% Cardi B raps, got a bag and fixed my teeth. 00:05:13.960 --> 00:05:16.375 align:middle line:84% Hope you hoes know it ain't cheap. 00:05:16.375 --> 00:05:18.250 align:middle line:84% So I tried to hide the unevenness in my teeth 00:05:18.250 --> 00:05:20.000 align:middle line:84% when I talk, which means sometimes I don't 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:21.520 align:middle line:90% talk when I can see myself. 00:05:21.520 --> 00:05:24.100 align:middle line:84% I tried to hide the gaps and how sharp my teeth really are. 00:05:24.100 --> 00:05:27.357 align:middle line:84% How animal, how lower class, how cash poor my mouth really is. 00:05:27.357 --> 00:05:28.690 align:middle line:90% I don't look pretty when I come. 00:05:28.690 --> 00:05:32.080 align:middle line:84% Mouth open, my jaw slack and sideways pulling spit, 00:05:32.080 --> 00:05:34.750 align:middle line:84% my deadened eyes fixed on one object in the room. 00:05:34.750 --> 00:05:35.830 align:middle line:90% This time a chair. 00:05:35.830 --> 00:05:37.810 align:middle line:84% This time a corner half in shadow. 00:05:37.810 --> 00:05:39.940 align:middle line:84% This time I just wanted to watch a Black woman 00:05:39.940 --> 00:05:42.940 align:middle line:84% on TV fall in love for entertainment. 00:05:42.940 --> 00:05:44.110 align:middle line:90% For escape. 00:05:44.110 --> 00:05:45.790 align:middle line:84% The best cure for microaggressions 00:05:45.790 --> 00:05:49.510 align:middle line:84% are shitty TV and, again, Cardi B. 00:05:49.510 --> 00:05:51.640 align:middle line:84% Ahmaud says for us American Blacks, 00:05:51.640 --> 00:05:53.560 align:middle line:90% we are post-apocalyptic. 00:05:53.560 --> 00:05:56.020 align:middle line:84% The end is not near, but behind us. 00:05:56.020 --> 00:05:58.690 align:middle line:84% We are what remains of our six million dead. 00:05:58.690 --> 00:06:01.600 align:middle line:84% We are what was not hung, dumped or flung from the Zong. 00:06:01.600 --> 00:06:03.250 align:middle line:84% Splashing and graveless, lest you 00:06:03.250 --> 00:06:04.960 align:middle line:90% think the ocean a tombstone. 00:06:04.960 --> 00:06:07.540 align:middle line:84% The ocean is not scared or sacred enough. 00:06:07.540 --> 00:06:09.790 align:middle line:90% But we out here, anyway. 00:06:09.790 --> 00:06:13.240 align:middle line:84% Trying to save ourselves still, sprinkling black pepper 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:15.070 align:middle line:90% behind our feet as we run away. 00:06:15.070 --> 00:06:17.740 align:middle line:90% But there is no north now. 00:06:17.740 --> 00:06:20.050 align:middle line:84% We find the drinking gourd within ourselves, 00:06:20.050 --> 00:06:22.330 align:middle line:84% guiding stars within our own black- lit blood. 00:06:22.330 --> 00:06:23.920 align:middle line:90% We glow. 00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:25.750 align:middle line:90% Maybe it's true then. 00:06:25.750 --> 00:06:28.710 align:middle line:84% That beauty is a type of survivor's guilt. A sack 00:06:28.710 --> 00:06:31.510 align:middle line:84% cloth, I suffer an inch and injure from and for, 00:06:31.510 --> 00:06:33.460 align:middle line:84% or rather that I am seen through sin. 00:06:33.460 --> 00:06:36.320 align:middle line:90% Dirty Hottentot zoo is my body. 00:06:36.320 --> 00:06:38.740 align:middle line:84% I was such a terrible Lady Macbeth in high school. 00:06:38.740 --> 00:06:40.360 align:middle line:84% Her mania didn't make sense to me 00:06:40.360 --> 00:06:42.550 align:middle line:84% until it was activated in me when a man left me 00:06:42.550 --> 00:06:44.080 align:middle line:90% in my blood and 20s. 00:06:44.080 --> 00:06:46.210 align:middle line:84% There's a type of grief I carry in my hands. 00:06:46.210 --> 00:06:47.800 align:middle line:90% Some dark un-wipeable thought. 00:06:47.800 --> 00:06:50.410 align:middle line:84% Some liquid other, like my daddy's DNA. 00:06:50.410 --> 00:06:53.230 align:middle line:84% His spots, I'm trying to cover them with this talk of beauty. 00:06:53.230 --> 00:06:55.390 align:middle line:84% I'm repenting for something, I don't know what. 00:06:55.390 --> 00:06:58.137 align:middle line:84% I wasn't meant to be born but ain't I a beautiful bastard? 00:06:58.137 --> 00:07:00.220 align:middle line:84% And doesn't everybody want to be cleaned by slices 00:07:00.220 --> 00:07:02.200 align:middle line:90% of jailed light Yes, it's true. 00:07:02.200 --> 00:07:04.727 align:middle line:84% I want my eyebrows microbladed for $700. 00:07:04.727 --> 00:07:07.060 align:middle line:84% There are specific times when I don't want to be wanted. 00:07:07.060 --> 00:07:07.870 align:middle line:90% Number one, at night. 00:07:07.870 --> 00:07:09.370 align:middle line:84% Number two, when I'm walking alone. 00:07:09.370 --> 00:07:11.380 align:middle line:84% Number three, at night when I'm walking alone to my car. 00:07:11.380 --> 00:07:12.730 align:middle line:84% Number four, an empty parking lot. 00:07:12.730 --> 00:07:13.980 align:middle line:90% Number five, a man approaches. 00:07:13.980 --> 00:07:16.150 align:middle line:84% Number six, he sniffs me knowing that familiar scent 00:07:16.150 --> 00:07:19.210 align:middle line:84% of pressure and piss from other men that have marked me too. 00:07:19.210 --> 00:07:20.770 align:middle line:84% Seven, didn't they touch me because I 00:07:20.770 --> 00:07:24.238 align:middle line:84% was beautiful or did they sense what was easy to poke? 00:07:24.238 --> 00:07:26.530 align:middle line:84% I've always wondered what made a slave beautiful enough 00:07:26.530 --> 00:07:27.290 align:middle line:90% to be raped. 00:07:27.290 --> 00:07:28.930 align:middle line:84% What about their body made it worth it 00:07:28.930 --> 00:07:31.445 align:middle line:84% to commit a sin on what they deemed a damned body? 00:07:31.445 --> 00:07:33.070 align:middle line:84% Maybe beauty had nothing to do with it. 00:07:33.070 --> 00:07:34.750 align:middle line:84% Of course, it's always about power, 00:07:34.750 --> 00:07:37.660 align:middle line:84% but maybe there was a type of sheen lacquer on Black bodies 00:07:37.660 --> 00:07:38.800 align:middle line:90% baking under the sun. 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:40.210 align:middle line:90% Or a funk from the field. 00:07:40.210 --> 00:07:43.330 align:middle line:84% Or the house slave dilating from room to room. 00:07:43.330 --> 00:07:45.880 align:middle line:84% A physiological scent that niggles perhaps. 00:07:45.880 --> 00:07:50.130 align:middle line:84% How close desire is to a type of terror owned and familiar. 00:07:50.130 --> 00:07:51.880 align:middle line:84% When I get ready with golden highlighters, 00:07:51.880 --> 00:07:53.110 align:middle line:90% is that what I am? 00:07:53.110 --> 00:07:54.067 align:middle line:90% What I accentuate? 00:07:54.067 --> 00:07:56.650 align:middle line:84% For my cheekbone to sparkle in the spectral light of the dead, 00:07:56.650 --> 00:07:57.580 align:middle line:90% belling inside me. 00:07:57.580 --> 00:07:59.950 align:middle line:84% The sparkle of dead slaves is forever in me. 00:07:59.950 --> 00:08:02.230 align:middle line:90% Still, so iridescent. 00:08:02.230 --> 00:08:05.110 align:middle line:84% Keats wrote, beauty is truth, truth beauty. 00:08:05.110 --> 00:08:06.490 align:middle line:90% That is all. 00:08:06.490 --> 00:08:08.410 align:middle line:90% I don't know what that means. 00:08:08.410 --> 00:08:11.433 align:middle line:84% I've had some dark inkling about it, succinct finality. 00:08:11.433 --> 00:08:12.850 align:middle line:84% Even in class, I pretended to know 00:08:12.850 --> 00:08:15.100 align:middle line:84% what the poem was about when my students would discuss 00:08:15.100 --> 00:08:16.930 align:middle line:84% ekphrasis and The Grecian Urn, telling them 00:08:16.930 --> 00:08:18.388 align:middle line:84% about art responding to art and how 00:08:18.388 --> 00:08:19.900 align:middle line:90% to make a static image sing. 00:08:19.900 --> 00:08:21.610 align:middle line:90% But even then, I was pretending. 00:08:21.610 --> 00:08:22.630 align:middle line:90% I don't want to be dumb. 00:08:22.630 --> 00:08:24.160 align:middle line:84% My worst fear, a bunch of students 00:08:24.160 --> 00:08:26.110 align:middle line:84% would all point and call me a fraud. 00:08:26.110 --> 00:08:28.240 align:middle line:84% I once asked Mark, my professor in grad school, 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:30.610 align:middle line:84% when I would stop feeling like an impostor. 00:08:30.610 --> 00:08:33.473 align:middle line:84% He said I would feel this way for the rest of my life, which 00:08:33.473 --> 00:08:35.140 align:middle line:84% I think is closer to some type of truth. 00:08:35.140 --> 00:08:37.059 align:middle line:84% Which is attractive because it provides relief 00:08:37.059 --> 00:08:39.267 align:middle line:84% to know everyone might be just as insecure and afraid 00:08:39.267 --> 00:08:42.130 align:middle line:84% of others as me, and possibly watching the Bachelorette 00:08:42.130 --> 00:08:43.960 align:middle line:90% on Monday nights. 00:08:43.960 --> 00:08:46.550 align:middle line:84% Like when I found out on the podcast, Commonplace, 00:08:46.550 --> 00:08:47.950 align:middle line:90% Sharon Olds loves the show too. 00:08:47.950 --> 00:08:50.890 align:middle line:84% I squealed because I wasn't alone anymore. 00:08:50.890 --> 00:08:53.690 align:middle line:84% I'm not writing for mastery or legacy, I could care less. 00:08:53.690 --> 00:08:55.480 align:middle line:84% In fact, I might be writing against it. 00:08:55.480 --> 00:08:57.220 align:middle line:84% A way of talking back to beauty, back 00:08:57.220 --> 00:08:59.560 align:middle line:84% to the spoiled fruit on the altar of my body, 00:08:59.560 --> 00:09:04.240 align:middle line:84% to the pressurized gaze on my skin every damn day. 00:09:04.240 --> 00:09:07.120 align:middle line:84% I'm hyper aware that I'm hyper visible says Hope Oloye 00:09:07.120 --> 00:09:09.040 align:middle line:90% 20, from Newham East London. 00:09:09.040 --> 00:09:13.870 align:middle line:84% The only Black biomedical student in her year at Oxford. 00:09:13.870 --> 00:09:16.210 align:middle line:84% Who hasn't been broken by a touch? 00:09:16.210 --> 00:09:18.160 align:middle line:84% Who hasn't been barbed by a glare? 00:09:18.160 --> 00:09:19.700 align:middle line:84% You can't write poems about beauty 00:09:19.700 --> 00:09:21.700 align:middle line:84% when the streets are full of racists and rapists 00:09:21.700 --> 00:09:23.620 align:middle line:84% and the president is a pussy grabber. 00:09:23.620 --> 00:09:24.940 align:middle line:90% I want to peg the canon. 00:09:24.940 --> 00:09:27.190 align:middle line:84% Ceremony back and forth between the house of silence 00:09:27.190 --> 00:09:29.465 align:middle line:84% and the house of shame, shouting over and over again 00:09:29.465 --> 00:09:31.840 align:middle line:84% with ink stained fingers on days when I write [Inaudible] 00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:34.920 align:middle line:90% one day no one can touch me. 00:09:34.920 --> 00:09:36.000 align:middle line:90%