The Other Killer News


Closing the news hour
TV anchor puppets
having relinquished
with sanguine tact
their last titillating "Breaking News"...
a Brooklyn liquor store
a Korean Town grocery
security cameras spewing forth
shotgun blasts
making forever ragged holes
in stocking masks threatening life.

Gazing wide eyed into the cameras,
Dick and Jane bob and weave feigned sadness for death,
imbuing their syrupy pitch,
toward media’s one last ratings grab.

Muting inane comments,
we watch BBC or other journalistic TV integrity.

Meanwhile…

Whales far north
lunge through a momentary ice break.

Up they arch,
black and white rainbows arching to survive,
as their ballet flight hastens our tears.

Orcas in trouble.
Will they?
Won't they realize their next breath?

Such a small opening this,
amidst dropping temperatures
beckoning more moving ice,
continuing natural closure.

Panicked…

The pod relays
instinctual reaction,
family upon family
rejoicing their orderly love,
sharing their moment of
blowhole desperation.

Gasping for life,
determined to outrun
nature's imperative,
they incessantly repeat
their cycle of urgency,
arresting the eyes of some onlookers,
boring others.

Some click a smart phone,
find a particular programming
catering to bullet and blood satiation.

Some turn devices off,
sit silent and immobile,
save the subtle shake of their heads,
considering,
allowing,
hoping.

The following days’ reports confirm
the Orcas have left the breathing hole
back under the ice, disappearing,
carrying out their perilous quest
for North Atlantic waters.

Moved by the mammals' courage,
some review the rare images that grant reflection
making life's quintessential instinct irrefutable.

Such is nature,
its seemingly never-ending battle against a human species
gone impotent to what is truly the testament of creation.

So sad…

How many have forgotten,
we are all one?