WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.100 align:middle line:84% You probably remember in the UK-- 00:00:02.100 --> 00:00:04.230 align:middle line:84% I don't know why I'm reading this poem. 00:00:04.230 --> 00:00:09.300 align:middle line:84% There was a lot of riots in the UK a couple of years ago 00:00:09.300 --> 00:00:13.500 align:middle line:84% and a lot of looting, and police violence and stuff. 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:16.470 align:middle line:84% And I was talking with a close friend of mine about it 00:00:16.470 --> 00:00:21.510 align:middle line:84% at the time, and we were just screwing around and trying 00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:27.630 align:middle line:84% to envision what we would do if that sort of scale of rioting 00:00:27.630 --> 00:00:29.310 align:middle line:90% broke out in New York City. 00:00:29.310 --> 00:00:31.860 align:middle line:84% Particularly in Union Square, which 00:00:31.860 --> 00:00:34.990 align:middle line:84% is sort of like the main hub of Manhattan in a lot of ways. 00:00:34.990 --> 00:00:38.970 align:middle line:84% And we both in the same beat did a ditto and said, 00:00:38.970 --> 00:00:40.800 align:middle line:90% I'll go steal from Whole Foods. 00:00:40.800 --> 00:00:42.540 align:middle line:90% Or whatever. 00:00:42.540 --> 00:00:44.880 align:middle line:84% Because every time I go to Whole Foods, 00:00:44.880 --> 00:00:47.310 align:middle line:84% it's like an exercise in my own poverty. 00:00:47.310 --> 00:00:50.490 align:middle line:84% It's always like the pate and the pine nuts 00:00:50.490 --> 00:00:52.950 align:middle line:90% I can't afford and stuff. 00:00:52.950 --> 00:00:57.962 align:middle line:84% And so we just sort of started live-writing 00:00:57.962 --> 00:00:59.670 align:middle line:84% this poem in front of each other sort of, 00:00:59.670 --> 00:01:04.830 align:middle line:84% and listing out all the things we would steal from Whole Foods 00:01:04.830 --> 00:01:08.160 align:middle line:90% if we were given the chance. 00:01:08.160 --> 00:01:11.310 align:middle line:84% And the end of the poem also has this weird sort of-- 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:17.010 align:middle line:84% I tried to imagine what poem cops knew. 00:01:17.010 --> 00:01:20.640 align:middle line:84% And I tried to imagine a bunch of cops who had studied Milton 00:01:20.640 --> 00:01:21.880 align:middle line:90% in grade school or something. 00:01:21.880 --> 00:01:25.200 align:middle line:84% So you're going to hear me sort of intentionally mess up 00:01:25.200 --> 00:01:27.540 align:middle line:90% some "Paradise Lost." 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:30.440 align:middle line:84% The poem is called "Whole Foods." 00:01:30.440 --> 00:01:33.990 align:middle line:84% "Officers please, if you see a man shoot 00:01:33.990 --> 00:01:37.470 align:middle line:84% past you tonight and his hair is on fire, and what 00:01:37.470 --> 00:01:42.120 align:middle line:84% skin he has left it peels off his back like cheesecloth, 00:01:42.120 --> 00:01:44.760 align:middle line:84% and a pitchfork is stuck in each thigh, 00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:49.080 align:middle line:84% and he's carrying bag after white plastic bag of Swiss ruby 00:01:49.080 --> 00:01:53.970 align:middle line:84% chard, or swollen mangosteens, or chicory root, his rutabagas 00:01:53.970 --> 00:01:54.510 align:middle line:90% he loves. 00:01:54.510 --> 00:01:58.080 align:middle line:84% He loves the Humboldt Fog, he loves his Black Forest Worms, 00:01:58.080 --> 00:02:01.530 align:middle line:84% and our yellow and red ones, our good Korean pears. 00:02:01.530 --> 00:02:04.680 align:middle line:84% He loves his goat's milk, Gouda, his pignolis, 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:07.380 align:middle line:84% and the olives so fat you could smother your child 00:02:07.380 --> 00:02:08.310 align:middle line:90% to sleep with one. 00:02:08.310 --> 00:02:12.090 align:middle line:84% All units, if you see him fire our wild rice from his sawed 00:02:12.090 --> 00:02:14.910 align:middle line:84% off shotgun, and pour nectar down his throat, 00:02:14.910 --> 00:02:19.110 align:middle line:84% and chant in some dead language what, to your ears, you'd swear 00:02:19.110 --> 00:02:20.820 align:middle line:90% it was lines one and two. 00:02:20.820 --> 00:02:23.070 align:middle line:84% You learned them by heart in grade school. 00:02:23.070 --> 00:02:26.220 align:middle line:84% Man's first no the fruit of disobedience. 00:02:26.220 --> 00:02:27.360 align:middle line:90% No, that fair tree. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:28.320 align:middle line:90% The first word. 00:02:28.320 --> 00:02:30.000 align:middle line:90% Who speaks the first word? 00:02:30.000 --> 00:02:33.780 align:middle line:84% It's a black sleet in God's land to wipe out the kings. 00:02:33.780 --> 00:02:34.650 align:middle line:90% And the line. 00:02:34.650 --> 00:02:36.060 align:middle line:90% How does the line end? 00:02:36.060 --> 00:02:36.870 align:middle line:90% And the night. 00:02:36.870 --> 00:02:38.190 align:middle line:90% Who will the night end?" 00:02:38.190 --> 00:02:41.190 align:middle line:90% 00:02:41.190 --> 00:02:43.310 align:middle line:90% So that's that book.