WEBVTT

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OK, I'm giving you a little
tour of my last few years.

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So I'm going back to the moment
when I returned to the US,

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in 2017.

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And this poem is called
"What a Crazy Country."

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"Girls A through J--" this
book is called Some Girls Walk

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Into the Country They Are From.

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I am Japanese and American,
and I was returning to the US

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after having spent
some time in Asia.

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"What a Crazy Country."

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"Girls A through
J in a new land.

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As good and
conscientious visitors,

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they dutifully abide by
the laws of the new land.

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It would only be polite.

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And that is why,
when girl A vomits,

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girl B extends her
cupped hands to catch it.

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In this land, it is not
permissible for vomit

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to touch the ground.

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Girl B then passes the vomit
into girl C's cupped hands,

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who passes it to girl D's
cupped hands, and so on.

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The hands of the girls who
have already passed it forward

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are covered in a layer of vomit.

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They wait patiently
for it to dry.

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They are not permitted
to wash their hands."

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This is gross, I'm sorry.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I'm not sorry.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Because it is gross.

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"Round and around the vomit
goes, until there is not

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enough left to pass on.

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When the passing of
the vomit is complete,

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the girls move to
a sunnier location

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so as to speed up the
drying of the vomit layers

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on their hands,
and then, finally,

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move on with their lives.

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Girl E is still processing
what has happened to them

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in this new land when a local
informant whispers something

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in her ear.

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What she hears makes
girl E almost vomit.

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She tastes it at the
back of her throat,

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but she just barely manages
to swallow it back down."

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