WEBVTT

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Keeping an eye on the time.

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So I'll read now from
the latest book from--

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Oh, and this isn't usually
a poem that I read,

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but Tyler posted a triptych
of mine the other day,

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and I was like, OK, maybe
I should read a triptych.

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So a triptych is
a poem that's kind

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of like the painting in
three columns, panels.

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And each one of them
is a poem on its own,

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and then you read
it horizontally

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and it's like, the
picture is complete.

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I won't subject you
to all four versions.

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I'll just read the last version.

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This is triptych "You
And My Country And I",

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and it begins with a quote
by the Yemeni poet Abdullah

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al-Baradouni.

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كلِّ شيء ... إلا أنا و
بلادي هذه كلّها بلادي ...

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وفيها

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-* عبد الله البردوني

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Which roughly translates as
"all of this is my country,

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and in it, there's everything,
except myself and my country."

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Under the kitchen light,
have you noticed my lipstick?

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Your head full of whiskey, we
chant بلادي /biladi, my country.

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How 70s of us!

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Your sweat, how you melt for
بلادي /biladi, my country.

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How predictable.

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This hurt.

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How your chin hangs lower.

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Is my country neither
poppy nor earth,

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Neither young nor old?

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Multitudinous or just
your daily turning?

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Turning, is it infinite?

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Is it infinite, this longing
inside this unforgiving?

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Is it a trench, this tongue?

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Consider.

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Is بلادي only masculine?

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No, both are possible.

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Laughter and the evening.

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Is بلادي feminine?

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Because inside the
ribcage, the humming.

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What woman doesn't know the
burning of the refrigerator?

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The bodies, the
bodies, the crying.

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And all this talk within,
without, about what we inherit.

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The body, the body, the
bread, and what land?

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Now I wonder is just spill.

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Take off your shoes
and your toes.

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And my nails, aren't
they beautiful?

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Aren't they beautiful?

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Aren't they beautiful?

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OK.

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[AUDIENCE CLAPS]

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It's really cool to
hear the hesitation.

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Like, is the poem done?

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Should I clap?

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]

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You can clap and you
cannot clap, whichever.

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I am a drama queen, though.

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I love clapping, so--

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHS]