WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.380 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.380 --> 00:00:04.783 align:middle line:90% I want to read the-- 00:00:04.783 --> 00:00:06.200 align:middle line:84% there's a longer poem in the book. 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:08.390 align:middle line:90% It's in about 17 parts. 00:00:08.390 --> 00:00:14.310 align:middle line:84% And it was inspired by a board game. 00:00:14.310 --> 00:00:17.430 align:middle line:84% I got a coffee table book about the early history 00:00:17.430 --> 00:00:18.060 align:middle line:90% of board games. 00:00:18.060 --> 00:00:19.470 align:middle line:84% And one of the things that struck me immediately-- 00:00:19.470 --> 00:00:20.700 align:middle line:84% if you know this about "Monopoly"-- 00:00:20.700 --> 00:00:22.650 align:middle line:84% you all have played "Monopoly," have you not? 00:00:22.650 --> 00:00:23.203 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:00:23.203 --> 00:00:24.120 align:middle line:90% You're true Americans. 00:00:24.120 --> 00:00:26.820 align:middle line:84% We've played "Monopoly," haven't we? 00:00:26.820 --> 00:00:28.590 align:middle line:84% "Monopoly" was originally invented 00:00:28.590 --> 00:00:33.150 align:middle line:84% by a woman named Lizzie Magie, who was a Georgist. 00:00:33.150 --> 00:00:36.570 align:middle line:84% And Georgists believed in the equal distribution of wealth 00:00:36.570 --> 00:00:38.370 align:middle line:84% and of labor and everything else. 00:00:38.370 --> 00:00:40.620 align:middle line:84% And so her game was called "The Landlord's Game." 00:00:40.620 --> 00:00:42.990 align:middle line:84% And the game was based around this idea 00:00:42.990 --> 00:00:46.260 align:middle line:84% that you would distribute the land and the labor 00:00:46.260 --> 00:00:48.690 align:middle line:84% and the money and everything else equally. 00:00:48.690 --> 00:00:53.640 align:middle line:84% And then, well, Charles Darrow found her game. 00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:55.080 align:middle line:84% And then he called it "Monopoly." 00:00:55.080 --> 00:00:56.580 align:middle line:84% And it became the game that we know, 00:00:56.580 --> 00:00:58.710 align:middle line:84% where you join with your family members 00:00:58.710 --> 00:01:00.240 align:middle line:84% on a lovely Saturday evening and try 00:01:00.240 --> 00:01:04.379 align:middle line:84% to break each other on the wheel of capitalism. 00:01:04.379 --> 00:01:06.450 align:middle line:84% And so I wanted to emulate that-- 00:01:06.450 --> 00:01:12.360 align:middle line:84% the form of the board game by putting into pieces 00:01:12.360 --> 00:01:14.920 align:middle line:84% and seeing how that might work once you put them together. 00:01:14.920 --> 00:01:17.580 align:middle line:90% It's called "National Anthem." 00:01:17.580 --> 00:01:19.590 align:middle line:90% "1. 00:01:19.590 --> 00:01:22.530 align:middle line:90% Locusts eat Ohio alive. 00:01:22.530 --> 00:01:26.610 align:middle line:84% June is the first month in bank robbery season. 00:01:26.610 --> 00:01:29.340 align:middle line:84% Silky tornado nestles in the trash. 00:01:29.340 --> 00:01:34.250 align:middle line:84% Angles of neckties act as compasses for flight. 00:01:34.250 --> 00:01:36.060 align:middle line:90% 2. 00:01:36.060 --> 00:01:38.310 align:middle line:90% You will disappear. 00:01:38.310 --> 00:01:39.330 align:middle line:90% 3. 00:01:39.330 --> 00:01:42.970 align:middle line:84% You will feel the need to disappear. 00:01:42.970 --> 00:01:44.380 align:middle line:90% 4. 00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:48.070 align:middle line:84% In an abandoned lot, a slow conglomerate of green tongues 00:01:48.070 --> 00:01:51.040 align:middle line:90% devour a dead bird. 00:01:51.040 --> 00:01:52.510 align:middle line:90% 5. 00:01:52.510 --> 00:01:53.770 align:middle line:90% Fill in the blank. 00:01:53.770 --> 00:01:57.040 align:middle line:84% This new-century sky is, A, noctilucent. 00:01:57.040 --> 00:01:58.210 align:middle line:90% B, nacreous. 00:01:58.210 --> 00:01:59.470 align:middle line:90% C, lenticular. 00:01:59.470 --> 00:02:01.990 align:middle line:90% D, unidentifiable as fluoride. 00:02:01.990 --> 00:02:05.510 align:middle line:90% E, all the above. 00:02:05.510 --> 00:02:07.010 align:middle line:90% 6. 00:02:07.010 --> 00:02:11.180 align:middle line:84% The sky is a cinder block smashed by hydrogen and moth 00:02:11.180 --> 00:02:13.480 align:middle line:90% light. 00:02:13.480 --> 00:02:15.040 align:middle line:90% 7. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:17.500 align:middle line:90% Wreckage is a kind of question. 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:22.220 align:middle line:84% It asks you to reconsider your inventory. 00:02:22.220 --> 00:02:23.090 align:middle line:90% 8. 00:02:23.090 --> 00:02:24.560 align:middle line:90% Broken jackknife? 00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:25.700 align:middle line:90% Decoder ring? 00:02:25.700 --> 00:02:26.960 align:middle line:90% Come back. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:29.300 align:middle line:90% Milk-white set of marbles? 00:02:29.300 --> 00:02:30.530 align:middle line:90% Come back. 00:02:30.530 --> 00:02:32.180 align:middle line:90% Boiled shark jaws? 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:33.470 align:middle line:90% Sloop load of clams? 00:02:33.470 --> 00:02:34.910 align:middle line:90% Antique copper brooch? 00:02:34.910 --> 00:02:36.590 align:middle line:90% Please, come back. 00:02:36.590 --> 00:02:42.260 align:middle line:84% This wristwatch won't tick, won't heirloom, but disappoint. 00:02:42.260 --> 00:02:43.460 align:middle line:90% 9. 00:02:43.460 --> 00:02:46.490 align:middle line:84% In its abandoned lot, the dead bird is gone. 00:02:46.490 --> 00:02:48.560 align:middle line:90% Green tongues twist slowly-- 00:02:48.560 --> 00:02:55.260 align:middle line:84% memory a thing that devours things that will devour things. 00:02:55.260 --> 00:02:56.610 align:middle line:90% 10. 00:02:56.610 --> 00:02:59.430 align:middle line:84% Spare licks of lightning pepper the panhandle. 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:03.020 align:middle line:90% Trees teeth in a locust zone. 00:03:03.020 --> 00:03:04.550 align:middle line:90% 11. 00:03:04.550 --> 00:03:06.830 align:middle line:90% Come back. 00:03:06.830 --> 00:03:08.290 align:middle line:90% 12. 00:03:08.290 --> 00:03:11.620 align:middle line:84% Construction workers wear federal orange vests, 00:03:11.620 --> 00:03:13.870 align:middle line:84% smoke cigarettes in the noon haze as they 00:03:13.870 --> 00:03:15.640 align:middle line:90% undo the street's ceiling. 00:03:15.640 --> 00:03:17.800 align:middle line:90% Cars run on boiled bones. 00:03:17.800 --> 00:03:22.330 align:middle line:84% Smog rolls in like a prehistoric ghost to slumber. 00:03:22.330 --> 00:03:23.980 align:middle line:84% At night, our cities are swallowed 00:03:23.980 --> 00:03:26.020 align:middle line:90% in swamps of orange light. 00:03:26.020 --> 00:03:31.860 align:middle line:84% Ghosts, federal as bone, boil around us. 00:03:31.860 --> 00:03:33.510 align:middle line:90% 13. 00:03:33.510 --> 00:03:36.150 align:middle line:84% According to local sources, a well-kept lawn 00:03:36.150 --> 00:03:39.720 align:middle line:84% is the simplest indicator of economic stability. 00:03:39.720 --> 00:03:43.590 align:middle line:84% Also, burglars operate under the night's braille blanket. 00:03:43.590 --> 00:03:47.170 align:middle line:84% Conversation is a politic of trivia. 00:03:47.170 --> 00:03:51.160 align:middle line:84% A newspaper is a politic of a tree. 00:03:51.160 --> 00:03:53.090 align:middle line:90% 14. 00:03:53.090 --> 00:03:57.290 align:middle line:84% In the beginning, atoms collided like German consonants. 00:03:57.290 --> 00:04:01.940 align:middle line:84% Everything else stewed in the oil fields of Los Angeles. 00:04:01.940 --> 00:04:03.290 align:middle line:90% 15. 00:04:03.290 --> 00:04:07.850 align:middle line:84% And ghosts, federal as bone, boil still around us. 00:04:07.850 --> 00:04:09.840 align:middle line:90% 16. 00:04:09.840 --> 00:04:12.840 align:middle line:84% Already heat has broke loose of its zoo. 00:04:12.840 --> 00:04:17.040 align:middle line:84% Children chew tar, kick cans, call strangers collect. 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:21.279 align:middle line:84% They drown the radioman in his radio. 00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:23.220 align:middle line:90% 17. 00:04:23.220 --> 00:04:24.330 align:middle line:90% Come back. 00:04:24.330 --> 00:04:25.530 align:middle line:90% Come back, children. 00:04:25.530 --> 00:04:27.750 align:middle line:84% Come back and see the Midwest's checkerboard 00:04:27.750 --> 00:04:32.190 align:middle line:84% from 30,000 feet, the smoke of industry leering like syrup 00:04:32.190 --> 00:04:36.320 align:middle line:84% over the river, alming the sky of life." 00:04:36.320 --> 00:04:39.000 align:middle line:90%