WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.460 align:middle line:90%


00:00:01.460 --> 00:00:03.050 align:middle line:84%
I want to read you
a couple of poems

00:00:03.050 --> 00:00:07.130 align:middle line:84%
from this series called
Dear America that's

00:00:07.130 --> 00:00:14.736 align:middle line:84%
trying to feel my way into
the madness of our time.

00:00:14.736 --> 00:00:16.823 align:middle line:90%
I'll read two or three of these.

00:00:16.823 --> 00:00:18.240 align:middle line:84%
Are you doing all
right out there?

00:00:18.240 --> 00:00:20.030 align:middle line:90%
[BREATHES DEEPLY]

00:00:20.030 --> 00:00:21.270 align:middle line:90%
This is number four.

00:00:21.270 --> 00:00:23.450 align:middle line:90%
Dear America.

00:00:23.450 --> 00:00:30.020 align:middle line:84%
Please, it's time to feel the
pain that underlies your cruelty

00:00:30.020 --> 00:00:32.270 align:middle line:90%
and tend to it.

00:00:32.270 --> 00:00:35.120 align:middle line:84%
This was 20 years
ago, the cabbie said.

00:00:35.120 --> 00:00:39.260 align:middle line:84%
I was riding with him to a
hotel in Revere, Massachusetts.

00:00:39.260 --> 00:00:41.160 align:middle line:84%
I was dancing at
a club, he said,

00:00:41.160 --> 00:00:43.410 align:middle line:84%
with this beautiful
Venezuelan girl.

00:00:43.410 --> 00:00:44.820 align:middle line:90%
This was Boston.

00:00:44.820 --> 00:00:47.700 align:middle line:84%
He'd been in the city already
six years, Puerto Rican,

00:00:47.700 --> 00:00:48.290 align:middle line:90%
he said.

00:00:48.290 --> 00:00:49.830 align:middle line:90%
He'd voted for Trump.

00:00:49.830 --> 00:00:51.410 align:middle line:84%
What his mother
keeps telling him

00:00:51.410 --> 00:00:53.790 align:middle line:84%
was the worst
decision of his life.

00:00:53.790 --> 00:00:57.980 align:middle line:84%
So many suffering at
home after the storm

00:00:57.980 --> 00:01:00.110 align:middle line:90%
without water or power.

00:01:00.110 --> 00:01:02.330 align:middle line:90%
Venezuela helped, Brazil helped.

00:01:02.330 --> 00:01:05.330 align:middle line:90%
Nothing from the US, he said.

00:01:05.330 --> 00:01:11.990 align:middle line:84%
I told him, I live in Arizona,
so much suffering on the border.

00:01:11.990 --> 00:01:15.680 align:middle line:84%
His mother, he said,
says God doesn't want

00:01:15.680 --> 00:01:19.100 align:middle line:90%
people to suffer like that.

00:01:19.100 --> 00:01:23.060 align:middle line:84%
That night in the club,
he said, agents burst in,

00:01:23.060 --> 00:01:25.880 align:middle line:90%
started rounding up people.

00:01:25.880 --> 00:01:28.200 align:middle line:90%
The Venezuelan was terrified.

00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:32.040 align:middle line:84%
My nine-year-old daughter is
home sleeping, she whispered.

00:01:32.040 --> 00:01:34.610 align:middle line:90%
I can't let them take me.

00:01:34.610 --> 00:01:39.060 align:middle line:84%
He whispered back, whatever
they ask you, just say yes.

00:01:39.060 --> 00:01:41.280 align:middle line:90%
Just say yes.

00:01:41.280 --> 00:01:44.970 align:middle line:84%
He took her hand and
walked up to the agents.

00:01:44.970 --> 00:01:46.410 align:middle line:90%
Are you a citizen?

00:01:46.410 --> 00:01:49.740 align:middle line:84%
Yes, he said, I'm Puerto
Rican and this is my wife.

00:01:49.740 --> 00:01:51.350 align:middle line:90%
Yes, she said.

00:01:51.350 --> 00:01:53.450 align:middle line:90%
He held her hand.

00:01:53.450 --> 00:01:55.670 align:middle line:90%
He saw her years later.

00:01:55.670 --> 00:01:59.240 align:middle line:84%
She whispered,
you saved my life.

00:01:59.240 --> 00:02:02.500 align:middle line:90%
[SIRENS]

00:02:02.500 --> 00:02:03.000 align:middle line:90%