WEBVTT

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And I feel like I
can't just tell you

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the title of the
manuscript, without reading

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you one of the-- there's
a series of poems

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that are called, "Don't Tell
My Mother If They Kill Me."

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And this is number two.

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"Tell my mom, I hit the
avalanche with both hands.

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I swept up the sawdust of old
white men up to my abdomen,

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and I made them listen
to those who are actually

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losing their lives.

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I didn't let them
insert some woebegone BS

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into a conversation that extends
beyond a nation or a tongue

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or a continent.

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You tell my mom, I ran
for the safety song

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of the forever nomad.

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I swept up in the
rubble of our oppressor.

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I never stayed still enough
to be found out or taken down.

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Hell, I ran right
up, close enough

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to take that awful
flag out of the moon.

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That mirror belongs to everyone,
especially to water, especially

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to light.

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You tell my mom, I made myself
strong in a set of sentences.

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Swept up all the
sorrow and suffering,

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I had soaked up from
countless lifetimes.

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Outlining the architecture
to create a cathedral,

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epicenter, swaying
with the, don't

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let capitalism kill me blues.

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I wove 13 tidal waves just to
sound out something like, free.

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Let her think I am free.

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Let her know what that means.

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Let me know what that
means, too, because I still

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don't understand.

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You tell my mom, I made it out.

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Scratched off my three dots
and left loco out west.

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Into the Pacific,
I turned sunfish.

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I swam for centuries.

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Learned to cope with myself.

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Gave up oxygen for
cool compression.

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It's always water.

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It's always darkness.

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Because now I eat the light.

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I am the sun.

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