WEBVTT

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So one of the
things that occurred

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as a result of
this investigation

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was that refugees gave up
samples like their urine

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samples, blood samples,
even their clothing.

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And these samples were
shipped to laboratories

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all over the world to test.

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They were mostly
shipped to arrive here

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to the United States.

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But what happened was that
when they arrived, most of them

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had already degraded.

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So it was really hard, at
that point, to even figure out

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definitively what this
toxin was and to really make

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a case for what was happening.

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And so some of the
poems in this collection

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focus on that process and
the futility of that testing.

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So this next poem
is one that explores

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that sense of futility.

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Authorization to Depart Ravaged
Homeland as Biomedical Sample.

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Flew you afar.

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Piecemeal bits of spleen,
liver tissues of the second gut

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orphaned by the hole.

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Routed you in a vacutainer,
Bangkok, Frankfurt delayed,

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Dulles, Fort Detrick, as if only
born to serve in post-mortem.

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Detain offerings
of cerebral shards

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to be juried under
a lens flew you

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from the silken wilderness
of your viscera.

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From all the vacated
leftovers of yourself,

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sinews snipped,
culled from the ribs.

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In this mission of guilt
for your unleaving,

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you've trekked far
from the village.

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Salvaged insides from
you and other hundreds

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sealed on letterhead,
dispersed to the globe.

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Here, at long last.

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You did not land a body.

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Only as a vial of blood were
you registered as urine.

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Did they label you asylum?

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Sample M3582, victim
7, en route to London.

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Fluids of you granted fare
to enter refugee airspace,

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while ending away
in a hospital camp.

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Stayed behind, the sourced
you and every else part.

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Sample M2582, victim 9, no
weakened career ambiguously

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arriving.

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So stomach of laments, how could
they not get you here somehow?

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Only drops relayed
from lab to lab to lab.

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Cargo of you quaking
inside an ice chest.

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