Seems like you just can’t escape the bad news these days. My goal was to construct a poem using a fast-paced, stream of consciousness format. Had Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” in mind when I wrote this.

Terrorism, communism, tsunami floods,
Wall Street bailout, economy in doubt,
Babies snatched, conspiracies hatched,
Steroids, asteroids, looters at the scene,
Carbon emissions, political divisions,
She said, he said, flu vaccines.
Tent cities, what a pity, America the Obese,
Fortune, fame, birds attacking planes,
     Flippin’ channels but I still can’t get away.

Helter-skelter, Greenland’s melting,
‘Tis the season for non-stop shelling,
Tabloid scandals, Haiti’s in shambles,
Twenty-nine trapped in mine collapse.
Coffee cups, GPS, phones behind the wheel,
Teenage drivers texting friends —
Highway fatality, now hit send.
Individually smart, collectively doomed,
     A world of hurt inside my living room.

Online sex, tattoos up to our necks,
Where the hell is Bangladesh?
Healthcare debates, pirates with grenades,
Get rich, die quick, apologize later.
Over hill, over dale, multiple deployments,
Welfare queens, Ponzi schemes,
     All crawling at the bottom of my TV screen.