Poem: Crisis on TV (again)

While we were supping,

The news relayed again,

A tiresome excitement,

The well worn suspense,

But it no longer bothered,

Our semi conscious chew,

Yet gave persistent, indifferent,

A Breaking story, live and on scene.

While we were dining,

The telly chided once more,

The same different version,

Of a story many times told,

But that did not move us,

Almost dreaming, quiet, eating,

And still it sent us,

A tale so wasted, so stale and fresh.

Oh, but to live a thousand times!

In the glimpse and blip of barely one life,

Oh, but to die a hundred times!

In the safety net of foreseeing just one death,

Oh but to experience the first time,

In repeated hindsight of last time,

All this useless, old, indifference,

So wondrously familiar, so different and new!

While we were eating,

An elegant reader frowned, repeated,

Another suspenseful script,

Of a story just birthing a „history“,

But that did not move nor misplace,

Our calmly sharing of bread,

Nor spawn awe or surprise,

At this tiresome sprig of dead bloom.

Oh, but to walk a thousand miles!

In the short stretch of garden path,

Oh, but to travel through many lands!

In the glare of a fleeting thought,

Oh, but to sense the importance,

In the uselessness of little lives,

All these critical, existential events,

So marvelously exotic yet so well known.

„In his spare time, he dabbles in Foreign Affairs“,

Flashed the joke, across my mind,

Across the news flash, flashing on TV,

While we were supping.

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Herrenberg, 04 03 2014

A "poem" born from breezing through headlines of Putin´s latest macho ballet prancing across the world stage, centered on Crimea.

We, the little people, swallow what the TV and papers and Internet have to offer, and give our own important sounding conclusions based on the right ideals and the wrong premises, while Grandmother at the table just chews in the wise fog of knowing that it all matters little, if the dentures are not quite fixed.

Poor Crimea has already seen the West and the East (Russia) tussle over it, while the foreign policy actors play their parts as a mouthpieces of very convoluted horse trading and intentions hidden behind intentions of intentions that are never said out loud.

Thank God for Sochi Olympic Games! As a para-olympic athlete commented on German Radio today: „We practiced for long years, hard and much – we do not want to be involved in politics, we just want to compete“ - - bless her soul, just a couple of hundred kilometers from the so unsportman-like Russian troops drooling over action in little old Ukraine. We are dumb, let´s admit it, we deserve this hell, baked fresh, daily.