| ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE.COM |
| ***BIO*** Andrew Rihn is the author of two chapbooks: While Grasshoppers Mate (Spare Change Press, 2008) and The Alphabetical Atheist (Scars Publications, 2009). Some say that Andrew is dead; others, that he joined the British Army. |
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| © 2009 zygoteinmycoffee Ink. |
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| Permanent Records |
| by Andrew Rihn |
| We laughed when the principal
would threaten us with putting this or that on our permanent records, as if the world would care that we were late to Western Civ. Our first jobs confirmed the world was too busy flipping burgers to care if we misbehaved in Algebra. In college, my transcripts came with acronyms GPA, GRE – ways to measure and record my brain, like academic cat scans. But I left behind another record of my education in the form of my FAFSA my debt to the government. The same government that refused to confirm or disconfirm the existence of FBI files on me for reasons of national security. The same people who hold my police record of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest over my head like a carrot, meaning for me to walk in circles, back to jail. This collection of documents, this catalogue of a poem – maybe this is my record. Maybe this is what I am; a collection of voices defining my boundaries for me. Maybe I am what they say I am and if that’s the case, I’ll take my lighter and burn this poem, burn the paper its printed on and walk away while my record goes down in flames. |
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| Oct. 2009 |
| 126 |