Inevitable: the death of news as we know it

Inevitable: the death of news as we know it October 8, 2015

Sometimes, I just think in poetry. Today is such a day. Sometimes, when I spend a lot of time on social media, soaking in what others say, and sharing what I’ve read and viewed, this is how the thoughts come out. Life is often too heavy to engage head on. Some of us make it our life’s work to rage at the sun on other people’s behalf. It’s hard to see clearly through the tears. Ephemeral is what life feels like when contemplating the greater scheme of things. . . Inevitable is a condition I find harder still to consider and accept. 

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Winter is coming . . . [Photo by Lelanda Lee]

 

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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