WEBVTT

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So much of the work
that I write about

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has a lot to do with
intergenerational trauma.

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Sifting through the silence
of my family members

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who have lived
through quite a lot.

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But so much of my work tries
to reach for tenderness

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and for joy, a very
deep kind of joy,

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because I come from a
very resilient people.

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I'm going to end on
this poem tonight.

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And I just want to say thank
you so much to those of you

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at the Poetry Center.

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I feel very taken care of here.

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And it's such an
honor to be here.

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''ABC for Refugees."

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"Cherub-bee-dee How does a man
who doesn't read English well

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know that cherub-bee-dum?

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Those aren't really
words, BD, but birds.

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Cherub-bee-dum he
stumbles, reading to me

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by the sliding glass door.

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cherub-bee-dee through
which I watch my brother

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play in the dum-dum yard.

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Cherub-bee-dee, cherub-bee-dum
like how my father says,

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fine then, leave.

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My mother shouts, stupid, dumb.

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We live in a small
bee-dee-nest too.

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One hallway to
bee-dum-slam doors.

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Birds?

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What are birds?

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Thanks to my father reading
with me I have more feathers.

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T H E. First word he
ever taught me to pluck.

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It is a word used all the time.

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Cherub-cherub-bee-dum the mail,
the mailbox, the school bus.

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The, the.

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He asks me to read the
mail, not birds, mail.

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If you don't read this,
you will turn into birds.

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And I read it to
him the best I can.

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The end.

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A feather.

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Two feathers.

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The.

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The end.

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Mother, mother.

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Repeat after me.

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Cherub-bee-dee, cherub-bee-dum
We read together before

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bedtime'."

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Thank you.

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