WEBVTT

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And I'd like to close
now with the first poem

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of the new manuscript, Fire:
Poems Against Pandemic.

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"The Week Ruth Bader
Ginsburg Died."

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"The week Ruth
Bader Ginsburg died

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was the week birds
fell dead from the sky.

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Parched trees exploded back
into trees of flaming lumber,

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then ash.

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It was a week wracked with
grief, a low moaning sound,

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and the useless wind.

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Fears shut the cabinets,
sounding hollow

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in the big empty.

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Not a ring nor a murmur.

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Not a touch sustaining some.

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Others flinch at the
chance, the sameness.

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Judge me not, all seem to
say, and let freedom ring.

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Let some sing.

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It was the week hurricanes
unleashed across the land

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seeking out justice, justice.

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Just us sat at the
narrow margins, then

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the center of our own
destinies imagined.

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It was the week the bare
technology of dying,

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of killing, fastened
its bloody hold.

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It was the week when glaciers
failed and sailed off

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into the new world.

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At our doorstep, death
in all its moldy clothes.

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Death by internet.

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We watched.

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We unclothed what we
were to begin with.

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Heat seeking missiles.

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Rocket launchers.

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Platoons of possibility.

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The week Ruth Bader
Ginsburg died, it

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was as if no one else had died.

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No other toll so singular.

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No other hope, yes, hope.

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The week Ruth Bader
Ginsburg died,

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it was like after they
killed Martin Luther King

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Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Malcolm X,
and assassinated our president.

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The week Ruth Bader
Ginsburg died,

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it was like I was
14 years old again

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and in perpetual lock down.

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Except that I'm not.

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Now I have rights.

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Rights we fought
for, and birthed,

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and we're never going back."

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Thank you.

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