WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.990 align:middle line:90% 00:00:07.990 --> 00:00:13.090 align:middle line:84% Continuing the religious theme, as it were, 00:00:13.090 --> 00:00:16.090 align:middle line:84% the next poem is called "Crucifixion." 00:00:16.090 --> 00:00:17.740 align:middle line:84% And it was written to commemorate-- 00:00:17.740 --> 00:00:22.030 align:middle line:84% this is sort of heavy, but I hope you don't mind-- 00:00:22.030 --> 00:00:24.640 align:middle line:84% it was written to commemorate an execution 00:00:24.640 --> 00:00:28.240 align:middle line:84% method used in the Sudan, where I lived for a short while. 00:00:28.240 --> 00:00:33.790 align:middle line:84% They've endured 40 years of unpublicized civil war. 00:00:33.790 --> 00:00:35.530 align:middle line:84% I think it's as brutal as Bosnia, 00:00:35.530 --> 00:00:37.825 align:middle line:84% but, you know, it just doesn't have any press. 00:00:37.825 --> 00:00:41.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:41.710 --> 00:00:43.810 align:middle line:90% "Crucifixion." 00:00:43.810 --> 00:00:48.550 align:middle line:84% "It's nonfiction, a newspaper's open and shut. 00:00:48.550 --> 00:00:51.160 align:middle line:90% But make that "suffocation". 00:00:51.160 --> 00:00:57.400 align:middle line:84% It's more genteel, the way the limbs fail the lungs. 00:00:57.400 --> 00:01:00.490 align:middle line:84% You want to read a hill full of crosses, 00:01:00.490 --> 00:01:02.770 align:middle line:90% but Khartoum has no hills. 00:01:02.770 --> 00:01:04.750 align:middle line:90% It's flat desert. 00:01:04.750 --> 00:01:09.790 align:middle line:84% And it's not nails for the hands and feet, it's staples. 00:01:09.790 --> 00:01:11.560 align:middle line:90% Big staples. 00:01:11.560 --> 00:01:14.650 align:middle line:84% People prefer the touch of technology. 00:01:14.650 --> 00:01:19.960 align:middle line:84% Besides, you have to be angry to pound, or have a lot of energy. 00:01:19.960 --> 00:01:22.360 align:middle line:90% Who in this heat? 00:01:22.360 --> 00:01:26.140 align:middle line:84% They're all just criminals anyway, or political prisoners, 00:01:26.140 --> 00:01:28.540 align:middle line:90% Shell employees. 00:01:28.540 --> 00:01:31.270 align:middle line:84% There's something about post hole digger working a cross 00:01:31.270 --> 00:01:36.670 align:middle line:84% into place, and the cross recycled, the wood old blood 00:01:36.670 --> 00:01:41.620 align:middle line:90% sticky, sandy, the flies. 00:01:41.620 --> 00:01:45.610 align:middle line:84% Only occasionally did they attach a foot rest 00:01:45.610 --> 00:01:48.850 align:middle line:90% to make it last longer. 00:01:48.850 --> 00:01:52.240 align:middle line:84% Only occasionally do they cut them down and put them up 00:01:52.240 --> 00:01:54.520 align:middle line:90% the next day. 00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:58.860 align:middle line:84% Only occasionally are there no birds. 00:01:58.860 --> 00:02:02.100 align:middle line:90% Pollution is catching up though. 00:02:02.100 --> 00:02:07.620 align:middle line:84% Soon, no scarlet-tailed hawk or owl with tinfoil claws. 00:02:07.620 --> 00:02:09.830 align:middle line:90% But who believes this?" 00:02:09.830 --> 00:02:14.000 align:middle line:90%