WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.870 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.870 --> 00:00:09.720 align:middle line:84% This one is called "You Go, Me Stay, Two Autumns," and yeah, 00:00:09.720 --> 00:00:13.080 align:middle line:84% I wrote this book during the pandemic so there's a lot of-- 00:00:13.080 --> 00:00:15.960 align:middle line:84% this poem is about the neighborhood 00:00:15.960 --> 00:00:20.040 align:middle line:84% during the lockdown and about my crazy neighbors 00:00:20.040 --> 00:00:23.640 align:middle line:84% and what what's happening politically and so forth. 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:32.759 align:middle line:84% And the title comes from a haiku by Masaoka Shiki, 00:00:32.759 --> 00:00:41.430 align:middle line:84% his dates are 1867 to 1902, and he wrote 20,000 haiku, so, 00:00:41.430 --> 00:00:43.680 align:middle line:90% yeah. 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:49.800 align:middle line:84% And normally I live in San Diego on the border of TJ, 00:00:49.800 --> 00:00:54.840 align:middle line:84% and so there's a there's a lot going-- it's a border poem. 00:00:54.840 --> 00:00:56.520 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:56.520 --> 00:00:58.230 align:middle line:90% And what else? 00:00:58.230 --> 00:01:01.290 align:middle line:84% I'm using Chinese parallel couplets 00:01:01.290 --> 00:01:07.840 align:middle line:84% and also I'm using hip-hop polysyllabic rhymes. 00:01:07.840 --> 00:01:13.000 align:middle line:84% So perhaps you will hear all those, yeah, influences. 00:01:13.000 --> 00:01:13.930 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:13.930 --> 00:01:16.990 align:middle line:90% "You Go, Me Stay, Two Autumns." 00:01:16.990 --> 00:01:22.990 align:middle line:84% Also audience, that's a refrain, and you, 00:01:22.990 --> 00:01:26.860 align:middle line:84% please speak the refrain when it comes with me when, 00:01:26.860 --> 00:01:28.430 align:middle line:90% yeah, when I cue you. 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:28.930 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:01:28.930 --> 00:01:30.670 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:01:30.670 --> 00:01:34.090 align:middle line:90% "You Go, Me Stay, Two Autumns." 00:01:34.090 --> 00:01:38.260 align:middle line:84% "Wipe your lipstick off the milk carton. 00:01:38.260 --> 00:01:42.610 align:middle line:84% Get off your high horse and wicked palanquin. 00:01:42.610 --> 00:01:47.680 align:middle line:84% Dye your ancestral roots kryptonite Day-Glo. 00:01:47.680 --> 00:01:52.780 align:middle line:84% Paint your opposable thumbs Urban Decay bonobo. 00:01:52.780 --> 00:01:57.940 align:middle line:84% Photobomb a grief group, confess you're happy. 00:01:57.940 --> 00:02:01.330 align:middle line:90% Hang upside down off a moonbeam. 00:02:01.330 --> 00:02:03.850 align:middle line:90% Screech like a banshee. 00:02:03.850 --> 00:02:07.570 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:02:07.570 --> 00:02:11.620 align:middle line:84% (ALL) You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:02:11.620 --> 00:02:16.990 align:middle line:84% Dan and Keats scratching tunes in the kitty litter, 00:02:16.990 --> 00:02:23.820 align:middle line:84% purring poetry and god through a negative ion capacitor. 00:02:23.820 --> 00:02:29.340 align:middle line:84% Air hug your biker neighbor, not too tight, she might bite. 00:02:29.340 --> 00:02:34.710 align:middle line:84% Rock roses and jasmine bathe in chain-linked light. 00:02:34.710 --> 00:02:40.440 align:middle line:84% Queen bees a hivin' beyond meat on the barbie. 00:02:40.440 --> 00:02:45.990 align:middle line:84% Squid ink gnocchi six-foot away still looks nasty. 00:02:45.990 --> 00:02:49.920 align:middle line:84% You've been knocking down mojitos, face licking 00:02:49.920 --> 00:02:52.440 align:middle line:90% boy chicks at the grotto. 00:02:52.440 --> 00:02:57.060 align:middle line:84% Auntie's decoupling sending you back to Idaho. 00:02:57.060 --> 00:03:00.900 align:middle line:84% (ALL) You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:04.860 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:03:04.860 --> 00:03:10.230 align:middle line:84% Catch a midge in mid-air, kiss her skinny lips, let go. 00:03:10.230 --> 00:03:16.860 align:middle line:84% A raven attacks my wig, he's Edgar Allan Poe. 00:03:16.860 --> 00:03:21.570 align:middle line:84% Twittering in twilight, raptors killing doves. 00:03:21.570 --> 00:03:27.330 align:middle line:84% Some singing about inequality, some crooning love. 00:03:27.330 --> 00:03:33.540 align:middle line:84% Don't fall for the pool boy, ain't got a pool. 00:03:33.540 --> 00:03:39.810 align:middle line:84% Don't fall for the girl boy, can't do ambiguity. 00:03:39.810 --> 00:03:46.710 align:middle line:84% But please wear it, N95 face mask if you want to see me. 00:03:46.710 --> 00:03:50.580 align:middle line:84% (ALL) You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:03:50.580 --> 00:03:54.780 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:03:54.780 --> 00:04:00.300 align:middle line:84% June says, You're too quiet, Mei Ling, go shout at a rainbow. 00:04:00.300 --> 00:04:06.150 align:middle line:84% Adrian says, Come visit Michelle and me for Utopian fish gumbo. 00:04:06.150 --> 00:04:08.760 align:middle line:90% Why do I speak to the dead? 00:04:08.760 --> 00:04:12.330 align:middle line:90% 'Cause the living are a-holes." 00:04:12.330 --> 00:04:13.575 align:middle line:90% Sorry about that. 00:04:13.575 --> 00:04:16.285 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:04:16.285 --> 00:04:20.220 align:middle line:90% 00:04:20.220 --> 00:04:25.650 align:middle line:84% "Fat man, little boy, someone will hit bottom. 00:04:25.650 --> 00:04:28.590 align:middle line:90% Why worry about nuclear winter? 00:04:28.590 --> 00:04:31.940 align:middle line:90% Our species will be forgotten. 00:04:31.940 --> 00:04:35.690 align:middle line:84% (ALL) You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:04:35.690 --> 00:04:39.800 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:04:39.800 --> 00:04:44.540 align:middle line:84% The princess on the left says, You rhyme with rich. 00:04:44.540 --> 00:04:48.990 align:middle line:84% The princess on the right says, Your poetry is shit. 00:04:48.990 --> 00:04:51.710 align:middle line:90% 00:04:51.710 --> 00:04:57.680 align:middle line:84% Over a million dead, better stay home, you might be next. 00:04:57.680 --> 00:05:03.050 align:middle line:84% I'm not funnier than Stevie Smith waving her undies, not 00:05:03.050 --> 00:05:06.740 align:middle line:84% funnier than Margaret Cho, I'm not that bold. 00:05:06.740 --> 00:05:09.740 align:middle line:90% Funnier than Aristophanes? 00:05:09.740 --> 00:05:15.000 align:middle line:84% The frogs croak no, oh, oh, oh oh." 00:05:15.000 --> 00:05:18.500 align:middle line:84% Some really nerdy references here for English majors, right? 00:05:18.500 --> 00:05:21.050 align:middle line:90% 00:05:21.050 --> 00:05:24.920 align:middle line:84% (ALL) "You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:05:24.920 --> 00:05:29.090 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:05:29.090 --> 00:05:33.755 align:middle line:84% Is that a 19th century Mauser, or are you happy to see me? 00:05:33.755 --> 00:05:36.260 align:middle line:90% 00:05:36.260 --> 00:05:41.440 align:middle line:84% Don't brag about your viral load, European amongst peonies. 00:05:41.440 --> 00:05:44.050 align:middle line:90% 00:05:44.050 --> 00:05:48.070 align:middle line:84% Hating black people, though one is your brother, 00:05:48.070 --> 00:05:52.860 align:middle line:84% hating white people, though one is your mother. 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:57.270 align:middle line:84% Killing racism like killing lice, bomb it, 00:05:57.270 --> 00:06:03.200 align:middle line:84% rate it, will return, Minnesota nights. 00:06:03.200 --> 00:06:06.890 align:middle line:84% (ALL) You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:06:06.890 --> 00:06:11.000 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:15.140 align:middle line:84% Visited Granny Wang in her raised metro bed. 00:06:15.140 --> 00:06:18.800 align:middle line:84% Helped her to route erase aubergine drag. 00:06:18.800 --> 00:06:23.510 align:middle line:84% She told this story, sorry, my translation is bad. 00:06:23.510 --> 00:06:26.810 align:middle line:84% One day whilst shopping at Walmart, 00:06:26.810 --> 00:06:29.480 align:middle line:84% a hoodlum grabbed my brocade purse 00:06:29.480 --> 00:06:31.820 align:middle line:84% and called me a stupid old chink. 00:06:31.820 --> 00:06:34.280 align:middle line:84% I chased him down the parking lot, 00:06:34.280 --> 00:06:38.180 align:middle line:84% hooked his ankle with my Phoenix claw cane, 00:06:38.180 --> 00:06:42.380 align:middle line:84% dragged him home in my flying wheelchair, 00:06:42.380 --> 00:06:45.920 align:middle line:84% reciting the Dharma of Six Thieves. 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:49.100 align:middle line:84% Steamed some butterfly shrimp dumplings 00:06:49.100 --> 00:06:52.520 align:middle line:84% in celestial garlic persimmon cream. 00:06:52.520 --> 00:06:56.570 align:middle line:84% He gorged three bowls and licked a spoon then napped 00:06:56.570 --> 00:06:58.700 align:middle line:90% in my La-Z-boy like a prince. 00:06:58.700 --> 00:07:02.030 align:middle line:84% I said, I call your mother to fetch you. 00:07:02.030 --> 00:07:06.620 align:middle line:90% He said, But my mother is dead. 00:07:06.620 --> 00:07:10.640 align:middle line:84% Praise the mysterious female, mysterious female. 00:07:10.640 --> 00:07:16.050 align:middle line:84% Praise the mysterious female, mysterious female. 00:07:16.050 --> 00:07:19.590 align:middle line:84% I met a masked vaquera at the border fair. 00:07:19.590 --> 00:07:24.150 align:middle line:84% We line danced to Cupid Shuffle and Achy Breaky Heart. 00:07:24.150 --> 00:07:29.010 align:middle line:84% She loved Selena, Shakira, and Cumbia bands. 00:07:29.010 --> 00:07:34.260 align:middle line:84% Don't remember much now, but the pony can dance. 00:07:34.260 --> 00:07:38.190 align:middle line:84% (ALL) You go, me stay, two autumns. 00:07:38.190 --> 00:07:43.140 align:middle line:90% You go, me stay, two autumns." 00:07:43.140 --> 00:07:46.020 align:middle line:90% [CLAPPING] 00:07:46.020 --> 00:07:47.950 align:middle line:90% 00:07:47.950 --> 00:07:49.510 align:middle line:90% Thank you. 00:07:49.510 --> 00:07:51.700 align:middle line:84% Thank you, for your participation. 00:07:51.700 --> 00:07:53.550 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER]