Saturday, December 18, 2010

Inevitable: the death of news as we know it


The familiar and revered
have died
passed on
overcome by another season
other reasons
Nature deals extinction
for animal and plant species
Losing hands
loosening grips
memory or imagination
history or invention
Why not news media
Delivery mechanisms
stagecoaches and trains
papyrus and ink
remnants of days gone by

Like the summer annual
bright and brighter
for a moment
leading us to believe
summer will last forever
But its premise fades
dries
dessicates
blowing into the autumn breeze
precursor of the leaves
unleashed from trees

Snowflakes
light as a breath
blow in on winter’s watch

Learning to let go
not mourning
not cheering
simply watching
the news slip away
in this print form
waiting
not quite believing
news will come again
in a new form

Ciphers constructed of
electric ions
speeding on
fibers thin as a notion
that we’ll become
accustomed to
like the lamp on
the table next to the photo
of great-great-great grand relatives
whose names we barely remember
whose stories we never knew
like the next generation’s
heirlooms
old stuff that got saved
sometimes inadvertently

Do you want to be the one
announcing the death of a generation
or proclaiming the beginning of the next?

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