WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.600 align:middle line:90% 00:00:03.600 --> 00:00:05.892 align:middle line:84% I have a very long poem in the middle of my book called 00:00:05.892 --> 00:00:08.517 align:middle line:84% "The Boat People," so I'm just going to read some sections from 00:00:08.517 --> 00:00:09.320 align:middle line:90% it. 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:12.660 align:middle line:84% A lot of this poem is just based off of research I did. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:15.440 align:middle line:84% I was reading-- I interviewed family members. 00:00:15.440 --> 00:00:17.880 align:middle line:84% I also read a lot of old newspaper articles between 00:00:17.880 --> 00:00:20.240 align:middle line:90% the '70s and '90s after the war. 00:00:20.240 --> 00:00:22.800 align:middle line:84% So I was reading a lot of accounts of people, especially 00:00:22.800 --> 00:00:24.760 align:middle line:84% people refugees, trying to come to the US 00:00:24.760 --> 00:00:27.840 align:middle line:90% and leave Vietnam on boats. 00:00:27.840 --> 00:00:30.520 align:middle line:84% So a lot of this is pulled from-- 00:00:30.520 --> 00:00:32.920 align:middle line:90% inspired by that research, 00:00:32.920 --> 00:00:35.080 align:middle line:90% The Boat People. 00:00:35.080 --> 00:00:39.360 align:middle line:84% She googles FOB after someone calls her fresh off the boat. 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:41.720 align:middle line:90% She has never been on a boat. 00:00:41.720 --> 00:00:46.120 align:middle line:84% What she finds blank deaths from blank to blank, 00:00:46.120 --> 00:00:49.840 align:middle line:84% Blank memorials in blank countries. 00:00:49.840 --> 00:00:52.820 align:middle line:84% On open water, they traveled on small fishing junks 00:00:52.820 --> 00:00:53.980 align:middle line:90% Origami boats 00:00:53.980 --> 00:00:56.000 align:middle line:90% Arms and legs folded 00:00:56.000 --> 00:00:57.800 align:middle line:90% One over the other 00:00:57.800 --> 00:00:58.320 align:middle line:90% Trawlers 00:00:58.320 --> 00:00:59.320 align:middle line:90% Smuggling thousands of 00:00:59.320 --> 00:01:00.400 align:middle line:90% Bodies 00:01:00.400 --> 00:01:01.770 align:middle line:90% Searching for international 00:01:01.770 --> 00:01:02.650 align:middle line:90% Water 00:01:02.650 --> 00:01:04.489 align:middle line:90% Living on empty 00:01:04.489 --> 00:01:06.370 align:middle line:90% For weeks and months, 00:01:06.370 --> 00:01:07.650 align:middle line:90% Looking for coastline 00:01:07.650 --> 00:01:10.930 align:middle line:90% That did not push back. 00:01:10.930 --> 00:01:12.610 align:middle line:90% Vietnamese boat people memorial, 00:01:12.610 --> 00:01:16.050 align:middle line:84% Asian garden of peaceful eternity. 00:01:16.050 --> 00:01:17.350 align:middle line:90% The man and old woman, 00:01:17.350 --> 00:01:18.830 align:middle line:90% The young mother and child 00:01:18.830 --> 00:01:22.290 align:middle line:84% Frozen in bronze turned blue green. 00:01:22.290 --> 00:01:23.930 align:middle line:90% Four figures so soaked, 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:27.450 align:middle line:84% They have become the waterlogged wrinkles of their clothing. 00:01:27.450 --> 00:01:28.850 align:middle line:90% Four figures on the raft 00:01:28.850 --> 00:01:32.850 align:middle line:84% Floating in a fountain shaped like the body of a boat. 00:01:32.850 --> 00:01:35.890 align:middle line:84% Their bodies submerging above water. 00:01:35.890 --> 00:01:39.930 align:middle line:84% The young woman's outstretched hand reaching back in time. 00:01:39.930 --> 00:01:43.410 align:middle line:84% Around the fountain lay 54 stones, 00:01:43.410 --> 00:01:45.930 align:middle line:90% Each inscribed with names. 00:01:45.930 --> 00:01:48.070 align:middle line:90% A small portion of the dead. 00:01:48.070 --> 00:01:53.690 align:middle line:90% 00:01:53.690 --> 00:01:55.490 align:middle line:90% Interview Number One. 00:01:55.490 --> 00:01:57.370 align:middle line:84% The former boat person stated that 00:01:57.370 --> 00:02:00.570 align:middle line:84% As many as 20 ships passed by without stopping and coming 00:02:00.570 --> 00:02:01.770 align:middle line:90% to their aid, 00:02:01.770 --> 00:02:04.130 align:middle line:90% Ignoring their cries for help. 00:02:04.130 --> 00:02:05.730 align:middle line:90% When they finally saw shore, 00:02:05.730 --> 00:02:08.630 align:middle line:84% The refugees sank the boat with their bodies, 00:02:08.630 --> 00:02:11.130 align:middle line:84% Pounding their hands and feet so that they could not 00:02:11.130 --> 00:02:14.250 align:middle line:90% be towed away. 00:02:14.250 --> 00:02:16.810 align:middle line:90% The people smugglers speak. 00:02:16.810 --> 00:02:19.150 align:middle line:84% They come to us with black market gold, 00:02:19.150 --> 00:02:21.710 align:middle line:90% Whole life savings, homes sold, 00:02:21.710 --> 00:02:24.810 align:middle line:90% They, the soon-to-be defectors. 00:02:24.810 --> 00:02:28.530 align:middle line:84% They will say they're going on holiday or nothing at all. 00:02:28.530 --> 00:02:31.090 align:middle line:84% They will disappear in the middle of the night, 00:02:31.090 --> 00:02:33.250 align:middle line:84% Walk through mud and green jungle, 00:02:33.250 --> 00:02:36.130 align:middle line:90% reappear in darkest morning. 00:02:36.130 --> 00:02:38.330 align:middle line:84% Some commissioned their own boats, 00:02:38.330 --> 00:02:42.730 align:middle line:84% traveling Petri dish of human waste, fever dream. 00:02:42.730 --> 00:02:45.250 align:middle line:84% We know men who have tried to leave many times 00:02:45.250 --> 00:02:46.930 align:middle line:90% Only to be turned back. 00:02:46.930 --> 00:02:49.170 align:middle line:90% Bad weather, bad feeling, 00:02:49.170 --> 00:02:51.050 align:middle line:90% They will not give up. 00:02:51.050 --> 00:02:54.890 align:middle line:84% They would squander their life savings a dozen times, 00:02:54.890 --> 00:02:57.290 align:middle line:84% Anything for the chance of freedom, 00:02:57.290 --> 00:02:59.390 align:middle line:90% the promise of blue ocean. 00:02:59.390 --> 00:03:06.380 align:middle line:90% 00:03:06.380 --> 00:03:08.660 align:middle line:90% Can you define a refugee? 00:03:08.660 --> 00:03:11.180 align:middle line:90% A refugee seeks refuge. 00:03:11.180 --> 00:03:13.420 align:middle line:90% Interview Number Six. 00:03:13.420 --> 00:03:15.260 align:middle line:90% I did not want to go back. 00:03:15.260 --> 00:03:18.860 align:middle line:84% When they took us to the plane, it was over very quick. 00:03:18.860 --> 00:03:23.020 align:middle line:84% We owned almost nothing still, after seven years, 00:03:23.020 --> 00:03:25.960 align:middle line:84% The men brought their fists together, desperate, 00:03:25.960 --> 00:03:28.860 align:middle line:84% We dragged our feet, refused to walk. 00:03:28.860 --> 00:03:31.260 align:middle line:84% There were bodies against their barricade, 00:03:31.260 --> 00:03:33.660 align:middle line:90% we're met with water cannon. 00:03:33.660 --> 00:03:37.300 align:middle line:84% The men were rolled into blankets, loaded into the cabin 00:03:37.300 --> 00:03:42.940 align:middle line:84% Like a cigarette in the plane's mouth, a stilled bullet. 00:03:42.940 --> 00:03:44.840 align:middle line:90% Vietnamese Boat People Memorial, 00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:47.220 align:middle line:90% Captain Burke Park. 00:03:47.220 --> 00:03:49.420 align:middle line:90% A mother holds her son's hand. 00:03:49.420 --> 00:03:53.940 align:middle line:84% On the other hand, a bird in mid-flight looks at the mother. 00:03:53.940 --> 00:03:56.300 align:middle line:90% The boy looks the other way. 00:03:56.300 --> 00:03:59.980 align:middle line:84% It is impossible to tell which direction is future. 00:03:59.980 --> 00:04:02.010 align:middle line:90% Which past.