WEBVTT

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There's only-- I think there are
four main places that they fly

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the drones from--

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Creech, Davis-Monthan.

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There's a place in Virginia.

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The actual drones
are, of course,

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in Pakistan, based
over there, but they--

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the practice drones, if you're
out there protesting them,

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they will come in and take
pictures of you protesting.

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And they fly very
close over your head,

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and there's a poem in that.

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Anybody who wants
to write that poem.

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I recommend getting your
pencil and paper out.

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But they come to check you out.

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It's a whole other
kind of business.

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The young people go to
work in their shorts

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and end up with PTSD.

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So I'm going to read another
haibun that comes out

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of the experience of--

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it's from that period that
Susan was talking about,

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too, about the Senate.

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And this poem-- well, I'll read
it, "Experiments with Poetry

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Are Taken Outdoors: An Essay
on Choosing a New Camera."

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Some friends and I visited
a panel on war and money.

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They were telling
lies on the panel,

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so we shouted then
they threw us out.

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Their publicist chased us,
hitting D with her fists

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and smashed my
camera on my head.

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We stood outside waiting
to settle the matter.

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A man in a good suit
came out to the sidewalk.

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He had watery blue eyes.

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I said, I won't press
charges if your foundation

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regrets the assault and
pays me for the camera.

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He said, we won't turn you
over to the attorney general

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if you get off the premises.

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I said, this is a
public sidewalk,

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and there is no
attorney general.

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Gonzales had resigned
some weeks before.

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The man said, you people
are endangering the country

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with your tactics.

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I said, you people are
endangering the world

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with your corporate wars.

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He said, I am a
veteran of two wars.

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I forget how Jesus came up.

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I said, Jesus opposed
killing human beings.

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The man said, God knows
some wars are necessary.

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I said, I didn't say God.

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I said Jesus.

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The Capitol Hill
cops argued with D

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who wouldn't give her name.

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D is calm and tall as
the Statue of Liberty

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whereas I am a
short Irish hothead.

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The man and I have
reached our limit.

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Now should be the
moment when we recognize

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each other's
humanity, but we each

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think the other will
destroy the world.

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This is where poetry
can be helpful.

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Poetry goes past the limit.

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It makes extra helpful
nerves between realities.

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Threads float above
the man's tweed coat

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and weave a pink
flag of no nation.

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Ancestors circle Capitol
Hill in a braid including

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Ginsberg and Blake.

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They build small
fires around the city.

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Reinforcements are not far away.

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We can't see occupy yet, but
we feel there must be a future.

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Tomorrow we'll go
back to our jobs.

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Crows are writing
poems no one can read.

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[CAWING]

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I think of the man
as a child, full

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of tiny expensive longings,
pushing toy trucks

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over the anthills at his home.

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Boom, he says, harming no one.

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He had joy once.

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Now on the sidewalk,
he wants to kill us.

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The longer we can keep him
busy, the more of his money

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we can waste.

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He hands me $279 in cash.

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Use your imagination,
my mother used to say,

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meaning you don't
have to use it.

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You are in it.

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[APPLAUSE]

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Thank you.

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Yeah, that man I
always wondered--

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I said-- he said, how much
does your camera cost,

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and I said, $279.

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I just pulled it out of the air.

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And he said-- and he pulled out
the money, this big wad of cash

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that he had.

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I looked later on the website
to find out what his name was.

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I never could find him on the
Heritage Foundation website,

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but the woman who smashed
my camera on my head,

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I found her and
I put her picture

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that I had taken with my
camera in the water book.

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It's in the water book.

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So she's there.

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I don't know what
happened to her.

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