Salman Rushdie Chokes on a Kipper

(true story, eyewitness account)

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SALMAN RUSHDIE CHOKES ON A KIPPER

Circa Nineteen Sixty,
dining hall, Rugby Public School.
Fork clangs on floor
as Salman Rushdie, still hair on his head
instead of a price, chokes on a kipper
and other boys look back at their plates,
at a Greek bust, cricket trophy
or new boy they want to bum.
Is it the kipper of Islamic Fundamentalism?
Is he choking on its fatwah-bone?
Will that hacking sound eventually produce the word
“Khomeini”?