New Poem - "Finland Is To Blame"
Finland Is To Blame
There are many who question
the official story of September 11.
Some of us question how it happened;
some of us wonder where it happened;
and some of us aren’t even sure it happened at all.
But unlike September 11th,
some dates and places in our common history
are less ambiguous, less hazy.
I can only speak for myself
and the rest of the world
when I tell you I can’t remember
who I was supposed to be on 9/11,
but I remember the events of 7-Eleven
like they were yesterday:
I remember standing in front of the cooler
trying to figure out what kind of soda I wanted
and that’s when it all went down;
people were screaming bloody murder
I remember murdering people
and noticing there was a new kind of Snickers bar
and I also remember
wondering what it would cost to buy
a Bahama Mama hot dog for a $1.49
and a bag of Doritos for ninety-nine cents
of course it was rhetorical-
nobody could possibly find a solution-
all of a sudden the political landscape changed forever
and the people of Great Britain liked me.
I wondered how often the guy
behind the counter washed his hands
and I couldn’t understand why all of my hostages were angry and upset;
I remember the woman who was buying her cigarettes
ahead of me in line made me feel something awful bad
for her quiet and hypothetical husband;
I remember there were only a few hot dogs
on the grill at the time and holy shit
the names of the Slurpee flavors were suddenly Arabic:
we weren’t divided as a people anymore
we were united together against the poor
and these events unfolded before me
as if they were an event unfolding
someone hijacked the Slurpee machine
I accused both the Saudis and the Connecticut drivers
most of all I didn’t know where you were
but I can remember most of it pretty clearly,
something about Greenpeace taking Iran hostage
or whatever
and then I fell backwards
into a window display of baby-blue antifreeze
into a display of brazen, unfrozen
partisan fish and chips;
to believe in a politician is to keep dope alive,
I was in the middle of always saying
when I got hit in the head
with a bouquet of 99 cent roses
and an avalanche of Tampax travel packs;
do you remember where you were
when you first saw the footage
of the Kennedy motorcade,
the President standing up in his car
and firing round after round
up into the Book Repository?
I remember I was almost alive
I only had a few years to go until I got here
and when I did there was a terrific rumble
and the floor started shaking
I lost my balance
I got hit with a donut
people were dying for decaf coffee
a flask of Old Grand-Dad went flying
I saw someone’s Grandfather go flying
I remember the President
ordered all 7-Elevens to exist at half-mast
and nobody could have anymore hazelnut coffee.
Then, Lincoln walked into a theatre
and took a seat in the balcony
where he could shoot the assassin onstage
and not be seen;
how terrible it can be
to see your own eyes sometimes;
some of us aren’t even sure
if 7-Eleven even happened
"Finland Is To Blame" by Rich Boucher
February 16, 2009