530 : Who's Manning the Watch?

Sunday Whirl (Wordle #112) presents a list of words

that we must incorporate in a writing piece.  

The words this week are:  

park, page, yard, status, shimmering, spill, 

spewing, thunder, rest, curb, jets, steps

Concurrently, dVerse has the prompt of twins, or entwined poems.

Who's Manning the Watch?

1. 

In the shimmering heat, late in the day.

Small dots appear on the horizon.

Birds of prey, perhaps.  

2. 

On its pages, real and electronic, 

the media is spewing indignation by the yard 

at the perceived injustices it deigns to see:

The marital status of a footballer, for example,

Or the forlorn hope of a cabinet spill.

Or the washing machine repairman 

who short-changed a housewife in Bentleigh. 

What to do?  Print a picture of a puppy or two.  

Meerkats are also good.

What? The price of parking your car has gone up?

Crisis.  Civilization, as we know it, is collapsing.

3. 

The dots in the sky have changed.  

Barely perceptively, they are getting larger.

Suddenly, (these things are not linear), 

they are very, very large indeed.  

And then with a thunderous roar, 

recede to dot like status on the other horizon.

Jets.  Attack fighters.  Killing machines with cross-hairs.

Behind them, they leave the dead.  No trial for them.  

No chance to explain.  

Just dead.

Summary justice, administered to curb dissent.

But, of course, it fails.

4. 

The media  are outraged 

A football coach wont resign; 

The pack stake out his home and nag.

The railway crossing that was ‘an accident waiting to happen’ 

but oddly not news prior to the accident,

The council that wont take steps to protect 

the feather-footed rock-pecker from picket fences,

A nude in an art show rouses the fears of art-loving paedophiles 

(where were the wowsers in Reuben’s time?)

Of course we have a page 3 girl. 

She’s not offensive.  

Our readers expect it.

5. 

In a courtroom, heavily guarded, 

a small soldier sits, 

surrounded but very much alone.  

He too had seen the cross hairs, 

seen the aftermath of remote diplomacy, 

and had responded as any decent person should.  

And will suffer for it for the rest of his life.

6. 

Meanwhile the media is in an uproar.  

Apparently daylight saving is causing curtains to fade. 

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© J Cosmo Newbery 2013

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