WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.840 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:08.376 align:middle line:84% I'll read one poem from the first book, the first child. 00:00:08.376 --> 00:00:12.150 align:middle line:84% It's called "We Are Americans Now, We Live in the Tundra." 00:00:12.150 --> 00:00:18.750 align:middle line:90% 00:00:18.750 --> 00:00:23.010 align:middle line:84% Today in hazy San Francisco, I face seaward 00:00:23.010 --> 00:00:26.310 align:middle line:90% toward China, a giant begonia-- 00:00:26.310 --> 00:00:31.440 align:middle line:84% pink, fragrant, bitten by verdigris and insects. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:37.410 align:middle line:84% I sing her a blues song; even a Chinese girl gets the blues, 00:00:37.410 --> 00:00:41.580 align:middle line:90% her reticence is black and blue. 00:00:41.580 --> 00:00:45.540 align:middle line:84% Let's sing about the extinct Bengal tigers, 00:00:45.540 --> 00:00:47.730 align:middle line:90% about giant Pandas-- 00:00:47.730 --> 00:00:51.720 align:middle line:84% "Ling Ling loves Xing Xing-- yet we will not mate. 00:00:51.720 --> 00:00:56.610 align:middle line:84% We are not impotent, we are important. 00:00:56.610 --> 00:01:00.480 align:middle line:84% We blame the environment, we blame the zoo!" 00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:03.360 align:middle line:84% What shall we plant for the future? 00:01:03.360 --> 00:01:06.480 align:middle line:84% Bamboo, sassafras, coconut palms? 00:01:06.480 --> 00:01:07.200 align:middle line:90% No! 00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:12.240 align:middle line:84% Legumes, wheat, maize, old swine to milk the new. 00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:18.240 align:middle line:84% We are Americans now, we live in the tundra of the logical, 00:01:18.240 --> 00:01:21.600 align:middle line:90% a sea of cities, a wood of cars. 00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:27.270 align:middle line:84% Farewell my ancestors-- hirsute Taoists, failed scholars, 00:01:27.270 --> 00:01:31.890 align:middle line:84% farewell my wetnurse who feared and loathed the Catholics, who 00:01:31.890 --> 00:01:36.420 align:middle line:84% called out now that the half-men have occupied Canton, 00:01:36.420 --> 00:01:40.940 align:middle line:84% hide your daughters, lock your doors! 00:01:40.940 --> 00:01:45.091 align:middle line:90%