This is a recent poem.
It's called Slave Ship German Model.
Slave Ship German Model.
I wrote this after I was on a panel
in New York with these people.
When they were on camera, they talked
about the disenfranchisement and oppression.
And when they were off camera, they
were talking about their assets.
[LAUGHTER]
So I wrote this.
I think people like that to [INAUDIBLE]
from the truly poor.
I mean, really, I live in a town where people are living
under the freeway and all that.
It's not progressive like this town, right?
Tucson.
I mean, I see homes--
[LAUGHS] Where did you put all the homeless people?
You don't see them around.
Got a great Chamber of Commerce here.
But anyway--
[LAUGHTER]
--put them out of sight.
Like Switzerland.
I guess you know [INAUDIBLE].
Where are all the homeless people over here?
We have no homeless people here, Mr. Reed.
Let's see, Slave Ship German Model.
With the first lines--
I got to show these people.
Maybe I'll get a promotion if I say the first line.
The first line, I'm indebted to Emily Dickinson.
[APPLAUSE]
Great, great.
It's one of the best poets in the world.
I was in London.
And I said, maybe I'll come back--
how do I get a promotion, where I'm working at?
University of California Berkeley.
So I bought everybody fountain pens from Buckingham Palace.
[LAUGHTER]
I couldn't afford the umbrellas.
I mean, you know.
[LAUGHTER]
OK, in the gift shop.
That'll do it.
Anyway,
"A pout is a thing with scales.
Even when gliding across the marble floor
and tailored by Adolfo.
I am in a room of pelts.
The clothes they wear would set me back three months rent.
Off camera, he displays a mink ring.
On camera, he talks about his disenfranchisement,
his oppression, a word that once had its hand
out has gone and gotten a manicurist.
[LAUGHTER]
He said that he bought a Mercedes
because the holes on the side reminded him of a slave ship.
At the entrance to JFK, there should be a sign,
Welcome to New York, a Rhetoric Delicatessen."
[LAUGHTER]
OK.
[APPLAUSE]