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Monday, November 7, 2016

THE CAMERA ZOOMS IN





With her automaton smile
the six o'clock news Barbie
recites a litany of the day's
shootings
stabbings
muggings
rapings
robbings
lootings
burnings 
natural disasters
sewer main ruptures
and one arrest for
spitting on the sidewalk.

The camera zooms in

on a whopper of a loogie
oozing on the concrete
in all its wicked glory.

A young gendarme collects it,

gingerly,
to be analyzed at the lab
so that someone can say
on good authority:
Yep, that's a loogie alright
and tag it "Exhibit A."

The wild-eyed derelict

they've collared
for this egregious offense
manages to fire a parting shot at the camera
a real bullseye that does a 

slooooow


shimmering


hoochie-koochie dance


down the middle of your TV screen--


while the Barbie's pasted-on smile

and glib tone never wavers
like her counterpart on CNN
who dispassionately described
the incineration of eighty-odd
men
women
and children
live as it happened at Waco
for to betray a hint of emotion
would not be impartial
nor professional
when anyone with a whit
of human compassion
would have hung her head and wept.


But that's okay

it's all in a day's work
and it all blends together
after a while anyway...
the real blood you see on the news
looks like the ketchup oozing
in that old burger commercial
from the nineties
and everyone out there
in TV land
is just as numb as you are.

And the guy who spit at you, well

he's only trying to wake you up...
cuz like the old ad once said
If it doesn't get all over the place
it doesn't belong in your face.

46 comments:

  1. ha...yes we have numbed ourselves for sure...love the absurdity as well of forensically going after the spitter....that is the backward way we work....now gimme some more death and dismemberment...

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  2. WHen we cant really handle, we numb ourselves that's what I feel.A childs reaction. But yeah as adults we have a responsibility not to go numb and do something. There is something that bothered me recently too, that was brought to notice by a blogger. I felt the responsibility to atleast find out about it and blog. The least I can do. I invite u to read and give me ur observation in it. http://jerlyt.blogspot.in/2012/11/chemtrails-what-could-they-be-for.html. (Btw I have replied to ur comment in my other post. I liked what u wrote)

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  3. Just excellent! I love a blast of satirical spit in the face of complacency.
    Three cheers for Tim.

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  4. We SHRUG,
    Balance lost,
    Bleach... to fade the real:
    Civil cost.

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  5. BRIAN: You got that right.
    JERLY: Thanks for your observations, and I invite my readers to check out Jerly's blog for a highly thoughtful and well-researched essay on a subject that is becoming more and more controversial by the minute.

    KERRY: I hope you ducked just in time! lol

    MAGYAR/DOUG: Well done...thanks, my man!

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    Replies
    1. yay i like getting things right every once in a while...smiles.

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  6. Makes me glad that I don't get my news from TV any more. As to the topsy-turvy as "civilization" stumbles from moment to the next, we can grumble, scream, cry, get numb, and giggle. We can - ever so often - take the decisive action or help things move more smoothly in the direction we think they should be moving. It's sobering how impotent most of us are beyond our personal spheres, though. Sobering how limited our influence, our energy, our ability to right the wrongs. The awful stuff is really awful as you show it against the numbing noise of the inconsequential.

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  7. Well indeed that is quite a commentary on the daily news!! And yes, we are all eventually numbed by it all.....

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  8. there really IS too much hockering on the sidewalk! when will it all end?????

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  9. The numbing, indeed! And as the political season comes to a long-awaited conclusion, I realize this process has further anesthetized a number of us.

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  10. Oh I so hear you - the numbing of America - the Barbie news mask. I can SEE that loogie, shimmying down the screen. As always, I love your take on the evening news, on life, on any subject you care to write!

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  11. I avoid newscasts as much as I can ... tired of the same old, same old. Nice write!!!

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  12. You've done it again... what a way with words and images, oh yes, a shimmering glimmering loogie and I love that the dude with the attitude just wants to wake up the sleepies...will it ever happen, I mean really and what would that be like if everyone just woke up at the same time? I'm sure there's a rhyme in there somewhere.

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  13. Yep, we have one of those here--she's had more elective surgery than Joan Collins, and her original hair color is something not even God can figure out. Life is apparently full of unpleasantness that has to be bleached out, laundered and pressed into nonentity--but I'm not too sure it's all working out at the cleaners. Great job, Timo.

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  14. MARIAN: I don't know, but it's a menace to society!

    SERENA: If everyone woke up at the same time, just think of how many pancakes we would have to make!

    ARLENE: "Against the numbing noise of the inconsequential." That was poetic. And thanks.

    MARY, KIM, SHERRY, HELEN, SREEJA, HEDGEWITCH: It is so great to hear from you, and to have your support.

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  15. Ergo: Throw the TV out the window and spit on it ... unless you don't have a window to throw it out of/ spit out of ... smiles ... Love, cat.

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  16. Well put truth about the media. But like you, may are not fooled

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  17. Replies
    1. Well, you know I trust your opinion, Sanaa :)

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  18. Funny with a good scene set up and message. I feel like a just watched a mini movie.

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  19. This is my kind of poetry. You've delivered exactly what I need, and masterfully, I might add. I am damn impressed.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you so much, Nebraska...you know I'm FROM Nebraska!

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  20. Ooo your satire is biting, and your truths reveal what is lurking behind the masks the media expects (or do they, really?) us to believe, along with the fodder we are given to swallow. Thanks for sharing a timely, powerful poem.

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    Replies
    1. I always look forward to your comments, Stacie. Thanks!

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  21. Loving this re-read, especially about the barbie who should have hung her head and wept. So true.

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    Replies
    1. The only question is...are these Barbies anatomically correct?

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  22. One hell of an awesome write, Tim!!!!

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  23. We benumbed wake up zombified to a good dose of satire. Helps every way everytime to deal with the sling of reality tubed

    Good one

    Much love...

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    Replies
    1. Always appreciated, Gillena. Have a great tropical day!

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  24. And therefore maybe even spitting on the sidewalk matters... great write

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  25. I think George Orwell is saying "I told ya so"

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    Replies
    1. For sure. 1984 has lasted way longer than a year!

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  26. An awesome write indeed.
    Our disgust at phlegm surely overrides death and destruction elsewhere...
    Kind regards
    Anna :o]

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    Replies
    1. My opinion of phlegm...just don't bring that up again!

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  27. I'd laugh if it wasn't so serious...

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  28. We have grown so numb. News viewed through a screen where the only emotion shown too often is dislike.

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  29. You know what blood looks like in a black & white video? Shadows! SHADOWS! (John Prine)

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