WEBVTT

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Another word that gets
me is just, correction.

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Correction facility.

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I just think it's, again,
like, just the absurdity of all

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of this is--

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"Under Correction"-- well, with
privatization everything has

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become like a moneymaker, and
so now most people don't even

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get to visit, physically,
their loved ones in prison

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because it is such a moneymaker
to have video or Skype

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or to have to pay for your 15
minute phone call or your 20

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minutes of video.

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"Under Correction."

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When we visit the correctional
facility to see my sister,

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we do not get to see her.

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We watch a television of her.

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This is not the correct
body of my sister.

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She is somewhere on the
other side of the screen.

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I am somewhere on this
side of the screen.

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And this box within a box, we
are each less than ourselves.

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We are the un-body, not quite
sisters, instead a distance.

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We are a performance of
people, but not real people.

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We are a TV show.

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In literary terms, this
is a frame narrative,

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a box within a box.

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I'm not sure who
is the narrator, me

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or the person watching me
behind the small, black camera

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in the ceiling
corner of this room.

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But there is a third
space, the space of touch,

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which has, of course,
been corrected.

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I am not seeing my sister,
my eyes are not touching her.

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She is being held in the
screen, and for her, we

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are being held in the screen.

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They move her from
facility to facility

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with no warning or
explanation, because they can.

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And I follow her because I must.

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I follow her into every
television or video

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screen, VIZIO, LG,
Samsung, Panasonic, Sony.

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All the cells in a plasma
display are smashed together,

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held inside by two glass
plates, front, back.

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I am caught in the middle
of a riddle of glass,

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because I made the
mistake of looking

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for my sister, who
was behind the glass

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from where I am
behind the glass.

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The screen has
fingerprints smudged on it

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from other visitors who reached
out for who was not there.

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I tell myself, do
not touch the screen.

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Do not let them know
that they are punishing

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your body by taking
your body away,

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by correcting your body so
that it knows it does not

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deserve to touch its sister.

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Do not reach out and touch the
screen to join in this act.

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Do not remind your
sister that her body is

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being corrected to a condition.

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I do not touch the screen.

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I cannot touch my sister.

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My sister needs money
to buy a thermal

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because it is so cold at night.

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I say, maybe they keep it
so cold here to deter germs,

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to make it safer for
my sister's body.

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But we both know they
make it cold to punish.

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This is their mistake,
I think, this coldness.

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It is making my sister
remember her body.

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Her body is fighting
this punishment.

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It is shivering, as if
to say, I deserve more.

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I am watching her shiver,
and I am in my mind

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all this time, holding
my sister in my arms.

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Gracias.

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[APPLAUSE]

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