WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:06.390 align:middle line:84% I was talking about political action with a class of mine 00:00:06.390 --> 00:00:10.290 align:middle line:84% at Goldwater Hospital, a hospital for the disabled 00:00:10.290 --> 00:00:11.400 align:middle line:90% in New York City. 00:00:11.400 --> 00:00:13.500 align:middle line:84% And some of the people at the hospital who 00:00:13.500 --> 00:00:15.360 align:middle line:84% knew the tram was going to be closed, 00:00:15.360 --> 00:00:20.460 align:middle line:84% had gone and chained themselves and their chairs, and motorized 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:90% chairs to the tram. 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:25.080 align:middle line:84% And said, if you stop this tram, we can't get to Manhattan. 00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:26.620 align:middle line:90% What are you going to do now? 00:00:26.620 --> 00:00:28.320 align:middle line:84% And the news came, and everyone came 00:00:28.320 --> 00:00:29.890 align:middle line:90% and the tram was now closed. 00:00:29.890 --> 00:00:31.980 align:middle line:84% So when I was there, I said, let's do 00:00:31.980 --> 00:00:33.750 align:middle line:90% a class on political action. 00:00:33.750 --> 00:00:34.590 align:middle line:90% Who was there? 00:00:34.590 --> 00:00:35.640 align:middle line:90% Tell me about it. 00:00:35.640 --> 00:00:36.240 align:middle line:90% What happened? 00:00:36.240 --> 00:00:39.690 align:middle line:84% And then let's all talk about what we've ever done, 00:00:39.690 --> 00:00:41.520 align:middle line:90% or wanted to do or didn't do. 00:00:41.520 --> 00:00:44.430 align:middle line:84% And in that class, I talked about something with them 00:00:44.430 --> 00:00:47.243 align:middle line:84% that I had not remembered for a long time, the woman who 00:00:47.243 --> 00:00:47.910 align:middle line:90% wrote this book. 00:00:47.910 --> 00:00:50.430 align:middle line:90% 00:00:50.430 --> 00:00:55.950 align:middle line:84% May 1968, the dean of the university 00:00:55.950 --> 00:00:58.470 align:middle line:84% said the neighborhood people could not 00:00:58.470 --> 00:01:02.040 align:middle line:84% cross campus, until the students gave up the buildings. 00:01:02.040 --> 00:01:04.290 align:middle line:90% So we lay down in the street. 00:01:04.290 --> 00:01:08.940 align:middle line:84% We said, the cops will enter this gate over our bodies. 00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:13.770 align:middle line:84% Spine down in the cobbles, hard bed like a carton of eggs. 00:01:13.770 --> 00:01:17.250 align:middle line:84% I saw the buildings of New York City from dirt level. 00:01:17.250 --> 00:01:20.940 align:middle line:84% They saw it up and stopped, chopped off cleanly. 00:01:20.940 --> 00:01:24.540 align:middle line:84% Beyond them the sky, black and neither sour nor sweet, 00:01:24.540 --> 00:01:27.540 align:middle line:90% the night air over the island. 00:01:27.540 --> 00:01:30.870 align:middle line:84% The mounted police moved near us delicately. 00:01:30.870 --> 00:01:33.300 align:middle line:90% Flat out on our backs, we sang. 00:01:33.300 --> 00:01:39.270 align:middle line:84% And then I began to count, 12, 13, 14, 15. 00:01:39.270 --> 00:01:42.960 align:middle line:90% I counted again, 15, 16. 00:01:42.960 --> 00:01:46.680 align:middle line:84% One month since that day on that deserted beach when 00:01:46.680 --> 00:01:52.140 align:middle line:84% we used nothing, 17, 18, my mouth fell open. 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:53.880 align:middle line:90% My hair in the soil. 00:01:53.880 --> 00:01:58.260 align:middle line:84% If my period did not come tonight, I was pregnant. 00:01:58.260 --> 00:02:00.990 align:middle line:84% I looked up at the sole of the cop's shoe. 00:02:00.990 --> 00:02:04.980 align:middle line:84% I looked up at the horse's belly, its genitals. 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:06.990 align:middle line:84% If they took me to women's detention 00:02:06.990 --> 00:02:11.009 align:middle line:84% and did the exam on me, jammed the unwashed speculum 00:02:11.009 --> 00:02:14.580 align:middle line:84% high inside me, the guard's three fingers. 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:18.270 align:middle line:84% Supine on Broadway, I looked up into the horse's tail 00:02:18.270 --> 00:02:20.880 align:middle line:90% like a dark filthed comet. 00:02:20.880 --> 00:02:23.640 align:middle line:84% All week I had wanted to get arrested, 00:02:23.640 --> 00:02:26.560 align:middle line:90% longed to give myself away. 00:02:26.560 --> 00:02:28.170 align:middle line:90% I lay in the tar. 00:02:28.170 --> 00:02:30.840 align:middle line:84% One brain in my head, and another tiny brain 00:02:30.840 --> 00:02:34.480 align:middle line:84% at the base of my tail, and I stared at the world. 00:02:34.480 --> 00:02:38.610 align:middle line:84% Good luck iron ark of the golden shoe, the cop's baton. 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:41.010 align:middle line:84% The deep curve of the animal's belly, 00:02:41.010 --> 00:02:44.820 align:middle line:84% the building streaming up away from the Earth. 00:02:44.820 --> 00:02:47.400 align:middle line:84% I knew I should get up and leave. 00:02:47.400 --> 00:02:51.170 align:middle line:84% Stand up to muzzle level, to the height of the soft velvet 00:02:51.170 --> 00:02:53.150 align:middle line:90% nostrils and walk away. 00:02:53.150 --> 00:02:58.280 align:middle line:84% Turn my back on my friends in danger, but I was a coward. 00:02:58.280 --> 00:03:00.950 align:middle line:84% So I lay there looking up at the sky, 00:03:00.950 --> 00:03:03.710 align:middle line:90% black vault arched above us. 00:03:03.710 --> 00:03:07.310 align:middle line:84% I lay there gazing up at God, at His underbelly, 00:03:07.310 --> 00:03:11.360 align:middle line:84% till it turned deep blue and then silvery, colorless. 00:03:11.360 --> 00:03:14.990 align:middle line:84% Give me this one night, I said, and I'll give this child 00:03:14.990 --> 00:03:16.580 align:middle line:90% the rest of my life. 00:03:16.580 --> 00:03:19.580 align:middle line:84% The horse's heads drooping, dipping, 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:21.950 align:middle line:84% until they slept in a dark circle 00:03:21.950 --> 00:03:24.125 align:middle line:90% around my body and my daughter. 00:03:24.125 --> 00:03:31.800 align:middle line:90% 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:35.382 align:middle line:84% I'm hearing the bird calls of Arizona. 00:03:35.382 --> 00:03:46.000 align:middle line:90%