18 November 1999

Clinton Endorses World Trade at Harley-Davidson Plant

(The White House did not pay for:)
nine thousand hot dogs
nine thousand rolls
nine thousand cans of Pepsi-brand sodas
five thousand bags of Lays potato chips
and one thousand pounds of baked beans

cynical adder grinning through
your one-stop photo op shop
faking ease among heavy machinery
shaking hands with exactly those
your policies will destroy
wearing a leather Harley jacket
(the White House did not pay for)
you strut your rap as Steppenwolf
echoes over the PA system

your flashbulbs a metonymy
every front page a mirror trick
reflecting you billions of times
framed by the last American factory

today these newspapers
are plastered over the writing
on the crumbling wall

tomorrow these newspapers
will blow through the empty streets
of an eviscerated Michigan

may your speech be drowned out by a
cacophony of flatulence
as the energetic crowd of factory workers
digests 1000 pounds of beans

although you claimed you would someday ride a Harley
President Clinton
they noticed that you did not eat a single hot dog