WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.760 align:middle line:90% 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:15.249 align:middle line:84% I think by request I'm going to read [CHUCKLES] my only sci-fi 00:00:15.249 --> 00:00:15.749 align:middle line:90% poem. 00:00:15.749 --> 00:00:19.365 align:middle line:84% [CHUCKLES] And it's called "Solitary Animal." 00:00:19.365 --> 00:00:22.710 align:middle line:90% 00:00:22.710 --> 00:00:24.585 align:middle line:90% And it's a-- 00:00:24.585 --> 00:00:27.570 align:middle line:84% I call it a free villanelle, sometimes. 00:00:27.570 --> 00:00:28.410 align:middle line:90% Yeah, I just-- 00:00:28.410 --> 00:00:31.050 align:middle line:90% 00:00:31.050 --> 00:00:35.040 align:middle line:84% I write in perfect form, and then I do variations, 00:00:35.040 --> 00:00:36.840 align:middle line:84% and sometimes the variations are more 00:00:36.840 --> 00:00:45.160 align:middle line:84% interesting than the formal version of "Solitary Animal." 00:00:45.160 --> 00:00:47.740 align:middle line:90% The solitary animal walks alone. 00:00:47.740 --> 00:00:49.450 align:middle line:90% She has no uterus. 00:00:49.450 --> 00:00:51.460 align:middle line:90% She has no bone. 00:00:51.460 --> 00:00:55.090 align:middle line:84% She slithers around dark bars and libraries. 00:00:55.090 --> 00:00:58.900 align:middle line:84% She carves a beautiful girl on the cave wall, 00:00:58.900 --> 00:01:04.720 align:middle line:84% dances with Aurora Borealis, but goes home alone. 00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:08.380 align:middle line:90% We are 7.5 billion. 00:01:08.380 --> 00:01:13.780 align:middle line:84% Thrust onto earth together, we are not alone. 00:01:13.780 --> 00:01:17.350 align:middle line:84% We shout at the stars, perhaps a Martian 00:01:17.350 --> 00:01:22.810 align:middle line:84% is listening, she, he, they, with 10,000 antennae, 00:01:22.810 --> 00:01:29.280 align:middle line:84% transversal labia quivering, searching for love. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:35.190 align:middle line:84% Your half-drawn monolid eyes are most tantalizing, 00:01:35.190 --> 00:01:37.500 align:middle line:90% may I take you home? 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:40.200 align:middle line:90% Slime you with a green kiss? 00:01:40.200 --> 00:01:43.530 align:middle line:90% Breathe magma into your bones? 00:01:43.530 --> 00:01:46.230 align:middle line:90% Claw rainbows onto your lips? 00:01:46.230 --> 00:01:49.360 align:middle line:90% Redecorate your home? 00:01:49.360 --> 00:01:55.330 align:middle line:84% Our vertebrae are vibrating, signaling we are not alone. 00:01:55.330 --> 00:01:58.240 align:middle line:84% Sacrificed by a greedy admiralty, 00:01:58.240 --> 00:02:03.940 align:middle line:84% we shall be devoured head-first by reptilian clones. 00:02:03.940 --> 00:02:08.470 align:middle line:84% Inch backward into your fern pods, why don't you? 00:02:08.470 --> 00:02:12.670 align:middle line:84% Baby, I call you, but you are not home. 00:02:12.670 --> 00:02:17.800 align:middle line:84% Somewhere in the cosmos, our lies are reverberating. 00:02:17.800 --> 00:02:20.890 align:middle line:90% Fake news is sad news. 00:02:20.890 --> 00:02:25.390 align:middle line:90% Shrapnel calcifying into bone. 00:02:25.390 --> 00:02:29.980 align:middle line:84% Each day we begin on earth as a dying person, 00:02:29.980 --> 00:02:36.240 align:middle line:84% each breath is less than yesterday, we shall die alone. 00:02:36.240 --> 00:02:39.027 align:middle line:90% 00:02:39.027 --> 00:02:39.610 align:middle line:90% Well, that's-- 00:02:39.610 --> 00:02:41.380 align:middle line:90% [APPLAUSE] 00:02:41.380 --> 00:02:42.520 align:middle line:90% --pretty bleak, right? 00:02:42.520 --> 00:02:47.080 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES] OK. 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:48.445 align:middle line:90% I feel better now. 00:02:48.445 --> 00:02:50.440 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:02:50.440 --> 00:02:53.620 align:middle line:84% I think there are Martians out there, after all. 00:02:53.620 --> 00:02:54.790 align:middle line:90% And they'll save us. 00:02:54.790 --> 00:02:56.640 align:middle line:90% [CHUCKLES]