Saturday night and London blows up.
France takes a bye this week.
New Jersey sleeps tight
and I tell my father
it’s only a matter of time
before
a taco truck with Haliburton stamps
runs down a few Chinese tourists
and a white girl from Indiana.
They’ve done it before
I say –
they print money
and detonate explosives
from the ground floor up.
Put your hand to your heart
and thank god for Walmart.
Is that Him out there?
No.
It’s another talking point to get
your kids on your knees
so when your head rolls
into their laps
your sacrifice
will have some meaning,
and you won’t look like the other fools of history
who died for nothing.
The trumpet sounds over a
misty DC morning.
A frozen yogurt stand
hands out extra sprinkles.
The kids lick up icing
while the buildings fall down.
But they didn’t see any planes
in the sky.
It was just like last time.
The parents burned their books
and checked themselves into camps
and smiled at the barbed wire
and said, “It won’t happen here.”
Scott Laudati is the author of Hawaiian Shirts In The Electric Chair REDUX (Cephalo Press). Visit him on social media @ScottLaudati
