no, not the
details, foreheads trickling
blood of children
and i’ve seen
this before in
israel and gaza
the photos and
headlines, hopeless
but then i
turn off my
phone and it
all just disappears
and i think
about the basketball
playoff game instead
Tag: News
Media Journalist During COVID-19
i work for
the new york
times, or politico
or fox, or
cnn, or any
of the flat
screened word factories
that exist to
educate, speculate, divide
conquer the masses
fixated on their
iphones, ipads, laptops
so we guess
about escalating death
rates, about what
has already gone
wrong, and all
the things we
still don’t know
about ventilators and
arrogant millennials, and
west virginians who
are not impacted
by our hysteria
but we keep
typing and posting
because we must
capitalize on all
the eyeballs stuck
at home, sheltering
in our sentences
and photos, following
our every word
about economy on
the brink of
massive global recession
and when this
finally ends, how
many lives will
we take, who
will count the
minutes that were
spent reading and
reading, and scrolling
hours of time
we robbed from
the worried, who
should’ve known better
-Author’s note: I’m 100% in favor of citizens staying informed about the news regarding COVID-19, however, I do believe that we need to carefully monitor how much time we spend endlessly reading articles that serve to churn up further worry and speculation.
The News
is worried about the economy
and about the virus and
how the two are connected
about cruise ships that
sail sick people in their midst
and so, day after day
men in suits, women with lipstick
grin or frown into cameras, on
screens, talk about stocks
descending, and this goes on
and on, day after day, as we
watch quarantines, death counts
following along, witnessing
global pandemic with a smile
and a grimace