WEBVTT

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OK.

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I'm going to-- two
more poems and then--

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OK.

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This is-- I'm--

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anyone Presbyterian here?

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[LAUGHTER]

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OK.

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I'm a Presbyterian-- I used
to teach English in my--

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the Presbyterian Church in
Oakland, Iglesia Presbiteriana.

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And it was a good experience.

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I taught for three
years, volunteered.

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And so this is a
poem about that.

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It's called Teaching English
From an Old Composition Book.

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And so I went to this
closet and discovered

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all this old composition books
of these old Presbyterians

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and this is about that.

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"My chalk is no longer
than a chip of fingernail,

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chip by which I must explain
this money, Monday, night,

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the verbs to get,
to where, to cut.

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I'm not giving much.

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These tired students knuckle-
wrapped from work as roofers.

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Sour from scrubbing
toilets and pedestal sinks.

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I'm given this room
with five windows

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a coffee machine
that doesn't work,

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a piano with busted strings.

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The music of how we
feel as the sun falls,

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exhausted from keeping up.

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I stand at the blackboard.

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The chalk is worn to a
fingernail, nearly gone.

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The dust of some
educational bone.

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By then-- by and by I'm
Cantiflas, the comic busybody

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in front of the class.

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I say, I get the coffee.

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I pick up the
coffee cup and sip.

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I click my heels and
say, I wear my shoes.

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I bring an invisible
fork to my mouth and say,

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I eat the chicken.

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Suddenly the class is alive.

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Each one putting
on hats and shoes,

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drinking sodas and beers,
cutting flowers and steaks.

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A pantomime of
scrumptious living.

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At break, I pass out cookies.

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Augustine, the Guatemalan,
asked in Spanish, teacher,

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what's tally-ho?

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Tally-ho.

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I look at the word and
the composition book.

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I raise my face to the bare
bulb for a blind answer.

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I stutter and say,
es como adelante.

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[LAUGHTER]

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Augustine smiles then nudges
a friend in the next desk.

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Now smarter by one word.

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After the cookies are eaten,
we move ahead to prepositions,

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under, over, between.

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Useful words when la migra opens
the doors of their idling vans.

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At 10 to 9, I'm tired
of acting, and they're

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tired of their roles.

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When the class ends,
I clap my hands

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of chalk dust and
two students applaud,

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thinking that it's a new verb.

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I tell them adelante, and
they pick up their old books,

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they smile and in
return cry tally-ho

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as they head to the door."

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[APPLAUSE]

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[INAUDIBLE]

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I knew that three
years of volunteer work

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would end up with a good poem
and it took a while but--

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