WEBVTT

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I'll read one poem from the
first book, the first child.

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It's called "We Are Americans
Now, We Live in the Tundra."

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Today in hazy San
Francisco, I face seaward

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toward China, a giant begonia--

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pink, fragrant, bitten
by verdigris and insects.

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I sing her a blues song; even
a Chinese girl gets the blues,

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her reticence is black and blue.

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Let's sing about the
extinct Bengal tigers,

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about giant Pandas--

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"Ling Ling loves Xing
Xing-- yet we will not mate.

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We are not impotent,
we are important.

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We blame the environment,
we blame the zoo!"

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What shall we plant
for the future?

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Bamboo, sassafras,
coconut palms?

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No!

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Legumes, wheat, maize,
old swine to milk the new.

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We are Americans now, we live
in the tundra of the logical,

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a sea of cities, a wood of cars.

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Farewell my ancestors-- hirsute
Taoists, failed scholars,

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farewell my wetnurse who feared
and loathed the Catholics, who

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called out now that the
half-men have occupied Canton,

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hide your daughters,
lock your doors!

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