When you break down the
top headline story
Into the simplest of terms
No human being on earth
Even a child could not misinterpret
Or fail to understand
When and what the newsreader
is actually saying
And yes you did hear those words
come out of his or her mouth
We don't have or have run out
of oxygen
In effect what they are actually
saying
Is the most abundant thing
on earth
Above food or water or even
dry land
We have run out of
Well riddle me this or am
in fact proposing the most
Stupid of questions in the
history of manking
If that statement you just made
was in any way true
In the next 10 minutes
Every living species
Without the ability of oxygen
to breath
Is
Dead
Extinct
I turn on the television
the newsreader in hectoring tones
recites
his sorry litany;
Emergency
Catastrophe
Disaster
Death
so I turn the television off;
notice how loud
the birdsong is this evening
and search for
other words;
Generosity
Gratitude
Tenderness
Love
Spring bathes in gold tonight
-and by such light
hope slowly grows