Poetry Report: Victim of Circumstance


“A crisp dollar bill
sits in the middle of his back
like a new store tag”

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No victim of circumstance gets treated better than a plane crash victim.

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If Only You Had Been in a Plane Crash


The smell is as if
every drunk in the city
pissed on him.

There's a man here
face-down, collapsed, crying.
His whole body is red,
swollen, ready to pop.

A crisp dollar bill
sits in the middle of his back
like a new store tag,
as if someone forgot him
before they could return him.

I suddenly wish
that he had fallen here
from that plane crash
in San Francisco.

Then someone would
touch him,
give him a blanket,
ask him nice questions
which include that beautiful word
from outer space:
itinerary.

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Scott Poole

Scott Poole is the House Poet for Live Wire! Radio, a weekly public radio show taped in Portland, OR and broadcast throughout the country. He is the author of three books of poetry, The Cheap Seats, Hiding from Salesmen and, most recently, The Sliding Glass Door (2011, Colonus Publishing). He was also the founding director of Wordstock, the annual Portland, OR book festival.

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