Dedicated to Eila Kännö (1921-2009)*
By Leo Honka
I lived in this land of Finland
from a long, long time ago
before it heard your steps
when it could kick the shit out of tolerance
and walk away with impunity with intolerance
in the streets
as soverign master
Over anything that moved.
You’d be shocked by the things I’ve consumed
with my eyes and ears
and devoured in one gulp
by a thrusted spear through the heart:
The fight to maintain Finland white back then
was pretty easy
all you needed were two sentences:
To keep criminals
and the human trash away.
* Head of the Aliens Office of Finland during 1970-84. Finland got its first aliens act in 1984, or 66 years after independence. Before this the authorities could detain and deport a migrant with no right of appeal. Some claim that Kännö ran the Aliens Office like a state within a state.