WEBVTT

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One of the legacies
of Columbus, which

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is still very much
with us in Puerto Rico,

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is the legacy of colonialism.

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Puerto Rico is the oldest
colony in the world--

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four centuries under Spain,
and now nearly a century

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under the United States.

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One of the consequences of
that is political repression

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in the island.

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The island is still very much
in the grips of McCarthyism.

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If you are in favor of
independence of Puerto Rico,

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you may be surveilled,
harassed, you may lose your job,

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you may be shunned
by your neighbors,

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you may even be killed.

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This is a poem about
a friend of mine

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who's had to deal with that.

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It's called "The
Lover of a Subversive

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is Also a Subversive."

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"The lover of a subversive
is also a subversive.

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The painter's compañero
was a conspirator.

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Revolutionary convicted to haunt
the catacombs of federal prison

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for the next half century.

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When she painted her
canvas on the beach,

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the FBI man squatted
behind her on the sand,

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muddying his dark gray suit
and kissing his walkie-talkie--

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a pallbearer who missed
the funeral train.

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The painter who
paints a subversive

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is also a subversive.

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In her portrait of him, she
imagines his long black twist

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of hair.

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In her portraits of herself, she
wears a mask, or has no mouth.

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She must sell the canvases, for
the FBI man ministered solemnly

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to the principal of the
school where she once taught.

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The woman who grieves
for a subversive

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is also a subversive.

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The FBI man is a
pale-skinned apparition,

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staring in the subway.

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She could reach for him and
only touch a pillar of ash where

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the dark gray suit had been.

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If she hungers to
touch her lover,

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she must brush her
fingers on moist canvas.

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The lover of a subversive
is also a subversive.

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When the beach chilled cold, and
the bright stumble of tourists

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deserted, she and the
FBI man were left alone

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with their spying glances, as
he waited calmly for the sobbing

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to begin, and she
refused to sob."

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