A Fly On the Wall
It seems I may not need to be
A fly upon the wall,
For so many folks are ready to
Reveal their all in all.
Innumerable tell all books
And gossip magazines
Are ready to print the stuff that once
Was kept behind the scenes.
You can go on line and whisper
All the secrets that you know,
Or show your private moments
On TV reality show.
For a trifle of notoriety,
There is nothing they won’t say.
If you want to peek in other’s lives
It’s not too hard to do today.
When I was young, the party line,
Was the local gossip’s toy.
If you mentioned something secret,
It would fill her heart with joy.
It would come back to you the next day
And would have been enlarged a bit.
Your sad secret is much juicier
When someone else is telling it.
I would like to have been listening
To The Sermon on the Mount,
To be sure that Matthew had it right
In his remarkable account.
Or to have heard with my own ears
Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.
That’s something that an humble fly
Could not appreciate, I guess.
I am glad some human stood there
Who could write it down for me.
We have the written word to thank
For preserving history.
Copyright © Joyce Johnson | Year Posted 2011
Post Comments
Poetrysoup is an environment of encouragement and growth so only provide specific positive comments that indicate what you appreciate about the poem. Negative comments will result your account being banned.
Please
Login
to post a comment