WEBVTT

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My last poem is one
that is for my mom.

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There are a lot of people
who talk about young women,

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and talk about the
lives of women,

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and they shouldn't
even get a vote.

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[LAUGHTER]

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This is called,
"Parenthood, Unplanned."

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Yeah, I was the
child of children.

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Spectac-- well,
we'll get to that.

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"Parenthood, Unplanned."

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When a jasmine
scented teenager--

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not yet my mother--

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came up pregnant with
me, my father stepped up.

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They did what
teenagers did in 1951.

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Married.

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Mismatched spectacularly--
15 years of yelling and beer.

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Four kids and two miscarriages
before she turned 24.

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No education past high school.

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So after the divorce,
crap jobs, crappier men,

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government cheese, no sleep.

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Haunted, her eyes.

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There are men making
decisions right now

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about lives of girls and women.

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Some do not want children to
know how their bodies work.

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Some do not trust women
to make decisions.

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As if women were
people, as if women

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know what's best
for their lives,

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for the lives of their children.

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That broken teen who carried
me, who pushed me out

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into this world, that brilliant
ragged girl died young,

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worn down in her thirties.

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One small life, I know.

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The only life she had.

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I speak for her when
I say let women live.

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Let women be.

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Thank you for sharing this time.

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[APPLAUSE]

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