WEBVTT

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A very brilliant student
remarked to me today

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that there's constantly
people dying and living

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through death in my poems.

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And, boy, was she right.

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And it's just been thrown
into sharper relief for me

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every five seconds as I'm
reading my poems today.

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This is the last poem I'll
read, it's the title poem from

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my book Trébuchet.

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These poems were written to land
you on a government watch list.

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And published at 1995 paperback,
hardcover edition unreleased,

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by an imposter of
Faber and Faber,

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of 320 South Jackson Street,
Athens, inside a warehouse

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formerly occupied by
six Pinkerton deserters

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in this year of our
lord, 2016, the year

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of the so-called accident.

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Or maybe to throw a brick
through the wall of the White

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House and no note attached
is their business.

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These poems come pepper
sprayed for your health

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with dirty words, particularly
on pages 3, 6, 23, 40, and 83.

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And were written by
one D. Schoonebeek,

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an oftentimes troubled
and defamatory young girl,

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living among the worst
generation of profiteers

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in balaclavas.

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And who somehow keeps
herself violent through love.

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Or maybe to start a riot
inside the insurgents,

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inside of the skirmish
is their business.

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Their weight is 9.356 ounces.

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They will travel 732
feet in 12 seconds

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when fired from a trebuchet.

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Their burning temperature
is still Fahrenheit 451.

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And they were printed
in these United States

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by McNaughton and Gunn
of Saline, Michigan.

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Or maybe to smuggle the anthem
back inside the chrysanthemum

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is their business.

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On the day of its
publication, this book

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would buy you four loaves rye
peasant bread, eight white boot

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laces, one liter of vodka
filtered through cheesecloth,

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five pounds goose feathers,
zero theater tickets,

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six single rides on
Manhattan-bound bus lines,

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three boxes baby diapers,
11 yards steel chain,

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zero paintings, three cartons
eggs, or a starred review

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in Publishers Weekly.

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What else do you
expect for $19.95?

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No, really.

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What do you demand
of your money?

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What is the so-called
function of police?

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Their international
standard book number is

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9-780-820-3499-23.

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And this is the same number of
school shootings since 1986.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since you were first broke.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since you were last fucked.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since you lost the
use of your left.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since the so-called accident.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since Flight 370 vanished.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since god said, I defect.

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This is the same number
of school shootings

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since you laid
down your weapons.

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And these poems
will offend a number

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of people who will
refuse to ignore them,

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some of them people with
what I like to call fathers.

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Fathers in law, or
fathers on Capitol Hill.

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And I mean men and
women of influence

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with fathers of money in Iowa.

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Their commercial
potential is laughable.

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The big five publishers will
spend zero money printing

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these poems, zero money ordering
cured meat for the book party.

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And the ruling class
will read them,

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but only on days when a
family member is assassinated

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or during nationally
televised tragedies.

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And they try to tell you the
middle class is vanishing,

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but the middle class will beat
itself to death with this book.

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The middle class will
call this young girl

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a woman of hatred of men.

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The middle class
will critique her.

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The middle class will call
her a national treasure.

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The middle class will market
her and the middle class

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will interrogate
her about her sex.

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They say the middle
class has vanished,

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but it's the poor
of this country who

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should rear up and
throw books of poetry

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through the walls
of the White House,

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and no list of demands attached.

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These poems are dedicated
to no man or woman

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who's yet been born.

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To the slugs that will
never leave your gun.

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To milkmen, Miss Universe,
snake oil salesman,

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Russian volleyball
champions, grave diggers,

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bribed congressmen, waste
managers, astronauts,

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deserters, zookeepers, Mega
Millions lottery winners,

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knife collectors, ex-military
tax evaders, careerists,

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doomed politicians,
musicologists.

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Bread and butter men, buskers,
anti-defamation lobbyists,

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government shills, bad
feminists, OK feminists,

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slander enthusiasts,
postal workers,

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Wall Street propagandists,
gun runners, unfamous poets,

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sort of famous poets,
advice columnists.

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Javelin throwers, failed
nuclear warhead designers,

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beauty school dropouts, spam
writers, cocktail artisans,

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viola wunderkinds, Brazilian
crust punks, mall cops,

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secret servicemen,
taxidermist, web hackers,

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and hypnotherapist, stunt
actors, card sharks,

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and bible thumpers.

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Porn stars, man children,
fire eaters, lumberjacks,

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bodyguards, and whistleblowers,
and conspiracy theorists,

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hijackers, children born without
throats, and hung juries,

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and hangmen, and whoever
Death will not love.

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If these poems don't
throw themselves

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through your windows,
please burn them.

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If you're the same
person building himself

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a ham sandwich inside
his living room

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after you've
finished them, please

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shoplift every edition of
this book you can find.

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Please tear out the
pages, and please

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burn them to warm your
house through the winter.

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The time of writing books that
don't send us to jail is dead.

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Drinking vinho verde
under the harvest moon

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and puttering our lines
at each other is dead.

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Asking yourself and
asking yourself,

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and why do you keep
asking yourself

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why a poem is the enemy
of money, is dead.

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If you will leave this book
on a wood slab on a shelf

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and gaping down into the world,
please throw it on the floor

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instead.

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Or instead please,
again, burn it.

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Instead, fire it out of a
trébuchet at the White House.

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This book was written
to terrify the fucking.

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Like the last poems you read
before the hostile takeover,

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like the first lines you spoke
when the plane disappeared.

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This book was written to break
the back of the saw horse

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between you and the police.

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It's a book like the
Earth you might salt

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if you started war against you.

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Thank you.

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