WEBVTT

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I like to read
another poem, that

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is a poem that I tried to
write talking about the problem

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that women have.

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It's not really a
problem that women have,

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it's a problem that all of
us have in this culture.

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If I ever talk from the
platform more about the problems

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that women have than
the ones that men have,

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it's not that I believe that
women have all the problems.

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I think if I had my
choice, which obviously, I

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don't in this culture I choose
to be a woman because I think

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it really is less burdened
with terrible choices

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and difficult and
impossible expectations.

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And I hope somewhere
in the world

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there's somebody writing about
the terrible cultural pressures

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that this society
is put on on men,

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but anyway, I have to speak
for myself and my own problems.

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And one of the problems that
almost all women experience

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is that when they show
strength in a situation

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where a husband or a lover or
another man is simply involved.

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They frequently wind
up being criticized

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for that strength being
called ball breakers

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or castrated or bitches,
or something very terrible.

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Because it's a horrible cultural
situation that when you have

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a man and a woman together, the
man is supposed to be strong

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and it doesn't matter what
the woman is as long as she

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doesn't--

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you surf that role.

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And obviously, it seems to me
that it's so hard for any of us

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to respond with strength
and courage to any situation

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that any human being
who does it ought

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to be honored for that
there's something very

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terrible about this situation.

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A few years ago, I
witnessed a domestic scene

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that haunted me and for about
a year until I could write

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a poem about it of a family that
had a mentally retarded child.

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And a very unbalanced
atmosphere as a result

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of the enormous strain
of caring for this child.

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And it happened the father--

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husband is one of the most
witty and charming men

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I've ever met in my life.

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And his wife was one
of the dullest people

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I've ever met in my life.

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But she had a kind of
strength that he didn't have,

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and he had a kind
of weakness that

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needed her strength enormously,
but she was constantly

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being put in these
embarrassing situations where

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she had to do something
very strong, and seemingly

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authoritarian and terrible.

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And he would sort of withdraw,
let everyone criticize her

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and make it into an ugly
and terrible situation.

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And I wanted to
write a poem for her

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to honor the strength
that she showed

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and to talk about
that kind of strength.

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I wrote a poem called
"Slicing Oranges for Jeremiah"

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because the scene
that had fascinated

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me was watching this woman so
efficiently slice up oranges

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for this child who
wanted to eat them.

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"Slicing Oranges for Jeremiah."

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"As the juice ran out on the
wooden board, the third orange

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you would cut for this
son of yours opened,

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and he grabbed the slices
like a little raccoon running

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to prepare them.

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Carrying his bowl
to the table where

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he ate, his instinct trying
to make up for something not

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in his throat or his
fingers, trying to make up

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for the thyroid gland
he was born without,

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he would eat a dozen oranges
if you would let him--

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Rosey Jeremiah with
long eyelashes.

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What does it mean if a child
cannot talk when he's six,

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if he shits in the toilet one
day, in his pants the next?

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What does it mean
if a man drinks

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and can't earn enough money?

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And what if he tells his
wife he'd like another woman,

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but wouldn't have one?

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And what does it mean
if he tells his wife

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she's unpleasant or dull?

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And what does it mean if his
wife takes sleeping pills

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or walks in front of a car?

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And what does it mean if
Jeremiah takes the sun

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and slices it up
like the oranges,

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and eats a little fire
thirsty for the juice?

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When you take the
knife in your hand

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to slice an orange burst into
quarters, then into eighth.

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Each slice shining is orange
jelly a goldfish lights

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on the water at night.

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And you cut competently,
efficiently,

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a housewife who
knows how to divide.

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When you take your
instrument and use

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it making pools of
orange juice letting

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the peels spray into your
nostril, what does it mean?

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And your son eating
orange after orange

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until I felt the juice in
my own mouth just watching.

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And the sweetness and I wondered
what was missing or why.

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And where his thyroid went or
why there was no gland there,

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and how even this baby animal--

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your son must know
that it was you

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who kept him alive,
remembering his pill each day.

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And taking him places where
people would respect him

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and letting him make drawings
and build garbage structures.

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And how his father knew too
it was you who kept him alive.

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Your husband giving him
whatever artificial gland

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it was you did each day, and
how they both resented it

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depending on it as they did.

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The men needing the woman
more than any man could admit.

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And what does it mean
this strength you have?

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It keeps you hovering
towards death,

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it keeps you near
the pill bottles

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and close to the wheels of cars.

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It keeps you sad
and compassionate

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willing to understand
the miseries of others.

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It isn't weakness that points
us towards death, but strength.

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Men dying earlier than women
to show their strength.

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Women taking their own
lives with gas and ovens

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with their gold clock
babies under their aprons,

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with sleeping pills glistening
like amber necklaces

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poured into the stomach's cave.

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Stepping quietly
under car wheels

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as they lie with their men at
night, not murmuring, enduring

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until the breath is pushed out.

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Slicing oranges for your son.

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You cannot see what I see.

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The oranges growing outside my
own back door when I was five.

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The dusty dark citrus
leaves making black smudges

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against my sweater.

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There is a gypsy in
me who wants to run

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with all these oranges in a
bag and trade them for the sun

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or find someone who
will cut them for me,

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the way you slice
them for Jeremiah.

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That care, that efficiency.

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Instead of some gland I might
have an orange tree growing

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just behind my throat straining
to stay alive to endure,

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waiting for the efficient
hand to reach inside

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and slice the oranges
as you do as I saw

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you slice oranges for Jeremiah.

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Slice the oranges
for your son, who

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could eat a dozen you
said if you'd let him.

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[APPLAUSE]

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I like to read--