Your pictures fill my weekday world at five.
The yellow crime tape flutters at the scene
Of yesterday’s event. You’re there, on screen,
Square-jaw’d Slick Goodhair, you’re reporting live.
But first, “Are you depress'd? Or weak, or dumb?
This pill, this car, this show, this boy, this chick,
This beer, this low-carb pizza on a stick
Will banish pesky thoughts.” Oh, bliss… I’m numb!
“Tonight! Police continuing their hunt
For signs of blue-eyed Dumpling Goldilocks;
But first, our Mayor Quoteworth talks and talks;
The traffic’s bad; no rain; replay that punt.”
That I may live in thee, secure and whole,
Stay on, TV, and teleprompt my soul.

My students are doing a Sonnet Slam tomorrow, and they asked whether I was going to contribute a poem. I hadn’t planned to, but I figured what the heck.

I had my colleague, Al Wendland, peer-review it for me.