WEBVTT

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This is called "Water Crisis".

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I was in Indonesia last
year for a conference

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on plastic pollution in the
oceans, a conference mostly

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for scientists, but
they invited poets.

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They also invited
visual artists,

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and they invited musicians.

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Indonesia surrounded by also
a gyre of plastic pollution

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on all of the edges of
the country of the islands

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there is this plastic.

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At the time I was there there
were a lot of things happening,

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including that the water
was cut off in Mexico City.

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Some of you may remember that.

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"Water Crisis".

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They have cut off the water
in the sinking metropolis.

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Do not wash clothes.

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Bathe only with small buckets.

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Meanwhile, cisterns on
the roofs of the rich

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send it singing through the
pipes of the better houses.

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There is the sound of applause.

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It is the clap of wings
just before doves enter

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the darkness of the dove coat.

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Then a quiet comes,
the sirens die down.

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Security gates slams shut.

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It is like night.

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We are waiting to breathe again.

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The gamecocks are forced
to fight with knives

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taped to their feet.

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This is illegal, so
is everything else.

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And there is never enough.

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The logs are fed
little by little

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into the mouths
of the clay ovens.

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Many songbirds have been
roasted by the heavens.

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Motor scooters flock through the
streets, a murmuration crossing

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like starlings the skies.

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It is a matter of thirst.

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They transport the
cocks in baskets

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covered by plastic
bags, their entire lives

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tethered to the ground
trapped in wicker

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until they are angry enough.

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Roof to roof in the conclaves,
cistern to cold cistern,

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they have seen to it.

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The rich will have
what they want.

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Is this a relief?

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The last cloud is empty, the
first death reason enough.

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