WEBVTT

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Thank you, Diana.

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Thank you to all the leadership
of the Poetry Center,

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and the staff, Tyler,
Sarah, and Paola,

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who've made my visit
here so fruitful.

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And to the participants
in the class yesterday

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at the Poetry Center,
thank you as well.

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It was really a special
afternoon for me.

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I will be reading from
Why The Assembly Disbanded

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this evening.

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And then I'll be reading from
a new manuscript, a new book

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that I will be
probably completing

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by the end of the spring.

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And I'm glad that
Diana mentioned the--

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I think that the true
drive of the book

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is about this world building.

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And the both actual,
and surreal border

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zones between Mexico, and
the United States, and Latin

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America.

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And it begins maybe
with the little terrors

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of everyday life, and concludes,
perhaps, in the cosmos.

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One of the things you may
not be able to see right now

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is that the book contains
a gallery of photographs

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by the photographers
Connie Samaras,

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and by the photographer
Rubén Ortiz Torres.

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And also a small
gallery of photographs

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that I selected and assembled
from archives, like the Nassau

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archive.

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The LA Public Library.

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The Library of Congress.

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In an attempt to create the
world building around this that

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takes us from the atrocities
of daily life, into perhaps,

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the possibility for ecstasy
and justice as Diana mentioned.

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"Two Guardians."

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"My words were sent
underground to where

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the toggle switch detonates.

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That was the glare our
voices were avoiding.

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There was something also
broken about the obedience

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of this retainer.

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The arcades weren't semaphores,
just because the arrows leading

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there facilitated those of
us in line as though reliant

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on East or West quadrants.

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The Ticketmaster was
prone to allied requests

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from the travelers,
the sliding doors

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sounded a fanfare
for the common man.

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Get faster as thought
or mind the gaps.

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What I can infer
never altogether

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will establish a space
adequate to the body count.

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The platform motivates
two guardians

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who are instructed
in safekeeping

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to usher me from harm's way.

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But my standpoint so
recedes from this tableau as

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to acknowledge a
footprint perspective.

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Translucent envelope
inside remainder

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by the riptide or such tunnel
vision as to warrant arrest.

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Why I was sent to
the netherworld

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inflicted with no wound.

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Someone let's fall a pair of
zip locks containing the crystal

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bliss of this conspiracy.

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What I had to say was sent.

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I mentioned this,
I think already.

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Underground switch
and toggle intended

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to ignite what I never
could bring myself to mean.

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Where the voices
were avoiding me,

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hands outstretched at quarter
day to hold back the beam.

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Was there something broken.

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I weather compliant.

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I rally."

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