WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.000 align:middle line:90% 00:00:02.000 --> 00:00:04.000 align:middle line:90% Yes. 00:00:04.000 --> 00:00:07.040 align:middle line:90% OK. 00:00:07.040 --> 00:00:11.720 align:middle line:84% So during the pandemic, when we really weren't doing that much 00:00:11.720 --> 00:00:15.180 align:middle line:84% and we couldn't go anywhere, couldn't get in our communities, 00:00:15.180 --> 00:00:18.120 align:middle line:84% we were spending a lot of time at home, 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.340 align:middle line:84% I would do these writing challenges. 00:00:20.340 --> 00:00:23.340 align:middle line:84% And I did it with a group of friends. 00:00:23.340 --> 00:00:27.760 align:middle line:84% And when you're doing a poem a day for a month, 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:29.300 align:middle line:90% things get a bit stale. 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:30.500 align:middle line:90% You try to shake things up. 00:00:30.500 --> 00:00:32.600 align:middle line:84% So we were reading the newspaper and we all 00:00:32.600 --> 00:00:35.280 align:middle line:84% found the same article on the same day, 00:00:35.280 --> 00:00:39.360 align:middle line:84% which was about a woman who was swallowed by a python 00:00:39.360 --> 00:00:41.680 align:middle line:90% in Thailand. 00:00:41.680 --> 00:00:43.680 align:middle line:90% So we all have python poems. 00:00:43.680 --> 00:00:47.160 align:middle line:84% Now, apparently this is more common than you would think. 00:00:47.160 --> 00:00:48.585 align:middle line:90% [LAUGHTER] 00:00:48.585 --> 00:00:50.960 align:middle line:90% Not a hard chance. 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.280 align:middle line:90% Yes, yes. 00:00:53.280 --> 00:00:57.960 align:middle line:84% "Woman Swallowed by a Python In Her Cornfield." 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:01.760 align:middle line:90% Inside every woman is a snake. 00:01:01.760 --> 00:01:04.680 align:middle line:84% Some think I'm a hoax or an oddity 00:01:04.680 --> 00:01:09.000 align:middle line:84% Rarer than winning Powerball or being struck by lightning. 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:12.760 align:middle line:84% Everything has a form, even doubt. 00:01:12.760 --> 00:01:16.570 align:middle line:84% Think of me as someone you've met in a dream: 00:01:16.570 --> 00:01:19.130 align:middle line:90% Green stalks shade the sun, 00:01:19.130 --> 00:01:22.890 align:middle line:84% Keep me hidden from the villagers, the non-believers. 00:01:22.890 --> 00:01:26.210 align:middle line:90% To find me, you must enter me. 00:01:26.210 --> 00:01:31.730 align:middle line:84% Oh, that your body fits into my body makes us unholy. 00:01:31.730 --> 00:01:34.770 align:middle line:84% Let me press my mouth to your scar, 00:01:34.770 --> 00:01:39.690 align:middle line:84% Run my tongue along your flesh so I can taste how you wound. 00:01:39.690 --> 00:01:44.090 align:middle line:84% The wild boars patrolling the edges won't save you. 00:01:44.090 --> 00:01:49.690 align:middle line:84% Footprints, flashlight, machete, slippers, all 00:01:49.690 --> 00:01:52.370 align:middle line:90% that I've left behind. 00:01:52.370 --> 00:01:56.330 align:middle line:90% Inside every snake is a woman. 00:01:56.330 --> 00:01:59.210 align:middle line:84% That's the part of me I love the most. 00:01:59.210 --> 00:02:01.530 align:middle line:90% Reticulated constrictor, 00:02:01.530 --> 00:02:03.190 align:middle line:90% Word made flesh, 00:02:03.190 --> 00:02:04.630 align:middle line:90% Time unfolding, 00:02:04.630 --> 00:02:09.009 align:middle line:84% Lore or legend, I am done telling the kinder story. 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:12.610 align:middle line:90% I am a myth of my own making. 00:02:12.610 --> 00:02:16.650 align:middle line:84% Part my snake flesh and you will find me intact, 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:20.490 align:middle line:84% Clothed as I was when I visited the corn. 00:02:20.490 --> 00:02:24.130 align:middle line:84% Think of me as the gift you're unsure how to open. 00:02:24.130 --> 00:02:25.030 align:middle line:90% [WHISTLES] 00:02:25.030 --> 00:02:28.380 align:middle line:90% [CHEERS, APPLAUSE]