WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.620 align:middle line:90% "Unasylumed, Unarchived." 00:00:01.620 --> 00:00:04.140 align:middle line:90% 00:00:04.140 --> 00:00:08.610 align:middle line:84% "And these teeth my father swiped with a rough finger, 00:00:08.610 --> 00:00:12.360 align:middle line:84% when syllabic pain is what fractured cannot solve. 00:00:12.360 --> 00:00:15.060 align:middle line:90% I am imprisoned. 00:00:15.060 --> 00:00:17.580 align:middle line:90% My hands are no martyrs. 00:00:17.580 --> 00:00:21.120 align:middle line:90% What did the new China replace? 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.610 align:middle line:84% Let's revisit the poplar tree in the form 00:00:23.610 --> 00:00:26.460 align:middle line:84% of my gentrified Oakland alleyway. 00:00:26.460 --> 00:00:29.280 align:middle line:90% I would wrap the body in cotton. 00:00:29.280 --> 00:00:33.390 align:middle line:84% The whole point in writing is not to revisit a war zone, 00:00:33.390 --> 00:00:38.220 align:middle line:84% it's to delight in anonymity, in the embezzled desires 00:00:38.220 --> 00:00:40.510 align:middle line:90% of the dead. 00:00:40.510 --> 00:00:42.750 align:middle line:84% There are no queens, only angels. 00:00:42.750 --> 00:00:45.540 align:middle line:90% 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:48.390 align:middle line:84% An upturned collar, a welted back, 00:00:48.390 --> 00:00:51.450 align:middle line:84% the rough grace of my lover's torso. 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:54.270 align:middle line:90% Can you show me what hurt is? 00:00:54.270 --> 00:00:59.160 align:middle line:84% Unplacated skin, or maybe the moisture from my lips 00:00:59.160 --> 00:01:01.500 align:middle line:90% pressing into your anger. 00:01:01.500 --> 00:01:06.000 align:middle line:84% No protest forgiving enough for public disclosure. 00:01:06.000 --> 00:01:08.790 align:middle line:84% My hair's just another's, my breasts carry 00:01:08.790 --> 00:01:11.670 align:middle line:90% nothing but common exploits. 00:01:11.670 --> 00:01:15.420 align:middle line:84% Do you breathe because you feel that is enough? 00:01:15.420 --> 00:01:17.010 align:middle line:90% Pinch them again. 00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:19.200 align:middle line:90% Have my shoulders hunched. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:24.710 align:middle line:84% When I'm yours, you rarely wipe the sweat from my lips. 00:01:24.710 --> 00:01:27.440 align:middle line:84% The new Chinese, please, as if this 00:01:27.440 --> 00:01:31.190 align:middle line:84% is the dish you order from a takeout menu. 00:01:31.190 --> 00:01:33.770 align:middle line:90% And what constitutes prayer? 00:01:33.770 --> 00:01:41.990 align:middle line:84% Teeth, palate, tongue, lips, thumbs as thick as throat? 00:01:41.990 --> 00:01:45.170 align:middle line:84% Cull my horrors for me, my arched palms 00:01:45.170 --> 00:01:48.170 align:middle line:90% are not strange for you. 00:01:48.170 --> 00:01:51.320 align:middle line:84% The devastating bodies beg skyward 00:01:51.320 --> 00:01:54.410 align:middle line:84% where vapors won't diffuse through the packaging 00:01:54.410 --> 00:01:56.690 align:middle line:90% container. 00:01:56.690 --> 00:01:59.040 align:middle line:84% Our breasts gave themselves to our hands, 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:01.980 align:middle line:84% we could absolve the sins of our torturers. 00:02:01.980 --> 00:02:05.480 align:middle line:84% Everything entered through them, spliced and unspliced, 00:02:05.480 --> 00:02:09.020 align:middle line:84% and spliced our fingers for our beloveds. 00:02:09.020 --> 00:02:13.770 align:middle line:90% Twice, four times again. 00:02:13.770 --> 00:02:16.440 align:middle line:84% I saw my father go down the alleyway. 00:02:16.440 --> 00:02:19.950 align:middle line:84% I saw his feet reach towards the dead roots. 00:02:19.950 --> 00:02:24.750 align:middle line:84% I only watched after him, asked what will become of his life. 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:28.140 align:middle line:84% I took the chain of civic performances from his neck 00:02:28.140 --> 00:02:31.770 align:middle line:84% and placed it around my own as if this would 00:02:31.770 --> 00:02:33.930 align:middle line:90% resolve my body in progress. 00:02:33.930 --> 00:02:36.780 align:middle line:90% 00:02:36.780 --> 00:02:41.250 align:middle line:84% And the porous textures of our skins are no longer relevant. 00:02:41.250 --> 00:02:44.370 align:middle line:90% I know he is not set stone. 00:02:44.370 --> 00:02:48.240 align:middle line:84% His blood won't gush from his fists. 00:02:48.240 --> 00:02:51.930 align:middle line:90% What syllabic pain is nothing? 00:02:51.930 --> 00:02:55.020 align:middle line:84% Say he could drive into another body, 00:02:55.020 --> 00:03:00.870 align:middle line:84% an entire blank space drones, indefinite in its contour. 00:03:00.870 --> 00:03:03.270 align:middle line:90% I will never speak of returning. 00:03:03.270 --> 00:03:05.310 align:middle line:84% Adam, you'll step into the shower, 00:03:05.310 --> 00:03:08.610 align:middle line:84% pour lukewarm water over my limbs. 00:03:08.610 --> 00:03:11.700 align:middle line:84% As a child bathed under the California skylight, 00:03:11.700 --> 00:03:15.060 align:middle line:90% I often lost track of time. 00:03:15.060 --> 00:03:17.220 align:middle line:90% About fractured paradise. 00:03:17.220 --> 00:03:20.460 align:middle line:84% I will never count my body as foreign. 00:03:20.460 --> 00:03:24.750 align:middle line:84% You should know the soil fate of an excavated languor: 00:03:24.750 --> 00:03:28.200 align:middle line:84% We do not need to wash until we freeze. 00:03:28.200 --> 00:03:32.640 align:middle line:84% Say you turn off the water on your own. 00:03:32.640 --> 00:03:36.700 align:middle line:84% What footsteps arched against a velvety bath mat? 00:03:36.700 --> 00:03:38.430 align:middle line:90% I'm going by an ash trail. 00:03:38.430 --> 00:03:41.580 align:middle line:84% I'm implicating my sexuality by sleeping in 00:03:41.580 --> 00:03:45.370 align:middle line:84% the home we have built. From Oakland 00:03:45.370 --> 00:03:48.460 align:middle line:84% to our fractured diaspora, must we 00:03:48.460 --> 00:03:52.040 align:middle line:90% fear being shot from the sky? 00:03:52.040 --> 00:03:56.000 align:middle line:84% Beloved, our murders would be knotted in themselves. 00:03:56.000 --> 00:04:00.620 align:middle line:84% No one can free us but our fists in exile. 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:04.510 align:middle line:84% I'm still swabbing my teeth with your hot fingers." 00:04:04.510 --> 00:04:05.064 align:middle line:90%