WEBVTT

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So I've been doing--

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I've been writing a poem for--

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oh, this is a--

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I don't want to think
about how long it

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is-- since 2006, since
the invasion of Baghdad--

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the third anniversary of
the invasion of Baghdad.

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And-- because I just don't want
to be yet another American who

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forgets we're at war.

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I want to be reminded every day.

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So I get up--

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I stopped cutting my
hair on that morning.

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And when I made this decision
to have something to remind me--

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I have two cousins serving
in Afghanistan currently.

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It's very complicated for
a lot of reasons, but--

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so look at the
latest body counts.

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I include the drone attacks
that are unbelievable that

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are going on all across--

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I don't need to tell you.

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I know you know this, but--

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so I look at the
latest body count

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and I measure my hair
by inches for war dead.

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And this poem is--

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it's between 1,800
and 1,900 pages now.

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And it just is horrifying.

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I hate it.

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And so it makes
you crazy, though,

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because you're working on this
for years and it's horrible

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and you hate it and
you just hate your hair

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and you want-- you have dreams
about your hair catching fire

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and it's like you
just let it burn.

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You know?

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It just feels good, just
burns into your head.

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You just don't
care in the dream.

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And why not?

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That's your hair and your dream.

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But anyway, it's disturbing.

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And I have begun
to do quite a few--

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My new book that's
coming out in September

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is called Ecodeviance:
(soma)tics

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for the Future
Wilderness and this

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is the first poem
in the new book.

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And I'm just going to read it.

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I had been engaging with the
public to write the poems now.

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So, yeah.

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So this is called "MIA
Escalator" for Jen Benka

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and Carol Mirakove.

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"I rode several of my
favorite escalators

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in Philadelphia, taking notes
up and down the vantages.

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At the top and bottom of the
ride I would show photographs

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of myself to strangers
and ask, 'excuse me,

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have you seen this person?'

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Sometimes there was
confusion, 'isn't that you?'

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I would reply, 'No, many
people think I look like her,

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but have you seen her?'

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I feel very fortunate to have
been born before the ultrasound

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machine.

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My generation was
the last generation

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to have a male and
female name waiting

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at the other end
of the birth canal.

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My generation is
the last to have

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our mothers touch
their bellies talking

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to us as male and female.

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Pink or blue?

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Both pink and blue, 'have
you seen this person?'

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I enjoyed my conversations
with strangers

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and made at least
one new friend,

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a handsome man who knew I was
the person in the photograph.

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That person, I am that
person and agreed.

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The ultrasound machine
gives the parents

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the ability to talk to the
unborn by their gender,

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taking the intersexed
nine-month conversation away

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from the child.

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The opportunities limit
us in our new world.

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Encourage parents to
not know, encourage

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parents to allow
anticipation on either end.

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Escalators are a nice ride,
slowly rising and falling,

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writing while riding,
notes for the poem,

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meeting new people at either
end, 'excuse me, excuse me?'

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My escalator notes
became a poem."

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