The Bad News

Zitner, Sheldon (1925 - 2005)

Original Text

S. P. Zitner, The Hunt on the Lagoon (Fredericton, N.B.: Goose Lane, 2005): 71.

1The first time a messenger brought the bad news we shot him,

2and the second and the third. Then a small plane flew over,

3trailing a bad news banner, and we shot it down.

4TV once showed the bad news true and whole--

5not the acceptable, somewhere-else-too-bads,

6so we deputized the newsrooms.

7When the bad news sneaked by on radio,

8we filled the dial with gangsta rap,

9so no one could tell the bad news from the lyrics.

10Then bad news leaflets floated from the sky.

11We couldn’t find them all, so we had the schools

12downplay reading. We thought we were safe,

13but just as we had settled back to enjoy,

14the bad news sprang up everywhere on its own,

15needing no messenger, and no longer news.

RPO poem Editors

Ian Lancashire

RPO Edition

2011

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