From: the.wise.one@abel.co.uk   
      
   THE MOST EXPENSIVE ANCHORMAN IN U.S.A.   
      
      
   The most expensive anchorman in U.S.A.   
   (A million dollars plus per annum after tax)   
   Hardly ever /reads/ the news but, Rather   
   Makes a news presentation.   
      
   A sublime encounter without precedent?   
   The less time needed to regurgitate   
   The mush of instant commentary.   
   Abettors readily on call, by hookup   
   A button pushed lights up the world's   
   Despairing ignorance. Banality   
   Obeys the law of Parkinson, swells   
   Its reign to fill prime space and time.   
   The mountain heaves and groans, hems and haws,   
   Brings forth a Mickey Mouse: Did you note   
   The President was sweating when he spoke?   
   Would that be due to camera lights?   
   Or do we detect a hint of nervousness?   
   Could we surmise he was not giving all   
   The facts?  Keeping something back?  A hint,   
   A - shall we say - of more disclosures yet   
   To come?  Of course it could be make-up.   
      
   'One moment - yes - were you about to say   
   His tie was knotted just a notch too tight?   
   He touched it once or twice I noticed.  Not tugging,   
   just a kind of gentle pat - now that   
   Could prove a gesture of significance.   
   I mentioned it in passing to Rick Schram.   
   You listening Rick?  Oh, we lost the picture.   
   Rick?  Ah, there he is.  Rick, remember   
   That new tie of the President?  It might   
   Become the issue, just as I predicted.'   
      
   The most expensive anchorman in U.S.A.   
   Rates his sneer a badge of knowing.   
   Armchair glib, from doughnut mix to spacecraft,   
   The latest launch postponement earns his scorn.   
      
   'Well, there you have it folks - one more delay.   
   With all the billion-dollar gadgetry,   
   The most advanced computerworks - it takes   
   A chance technician with a paper clip   
   To spot the ten-day glitch.  Well, we hold our breath.   
   Is there a - /latest/ forecast?  The twelfth I think.   
   A fuel leak may be the next excuse.  Or weather.   
   Or plumbing problems in the loo.  Still   
   There is always chewing gum to plug a leak -   
   Let's hope the astronauts are listening -   
   You listening astronauts?  Don't leave home   
   Without it.  And now to something more dependable -   
   The Bhopal tragedy.  With me via satellite   
   Is Mr. Rajiv Gandhi, Prime Minister   
   Of India ... Rick are you with me?'   
      
   The 'Go' was given.  Post-mortem sighed, returned   
   To school, shed forensic laws to study   
   Rules of media hype.  Science had bowed to gibes,   
   To wisecracks fuelling a nation's expectations.   
   The O rings lay in wait on mortal hubris ...   
      
   Mind calloused to universal loss,   
   Our man declined to blink, stayed squarely   
   On the ball.  The ghoulish game began.   
   Reruns of fated microseconds, frame by frame   
   Pandered to a nation's voyeur lust.  Kith and kin   
   The close bereaved were casual anchor fodder.   
   Master of Ceremonies, cool, unflappable, he   
   Tortures hours from moments, shakes grief loose   
   Of cultured silences in humane options.   
   The understated narrative.  Taste   
   As sometime reticence in dread events.   
      
   Our man is jovial host to one more   
   'Talk show', junk food of wonder palates   
   In wonderland.  The anchor caste rejects   
   Catharsis.  Awe is sentiment.  His newsy tongue   
   Licks the wound anew, bleeds raw bandages.   
      
   Rewind.  Slow motion.  Zoom on frame.   
   The expert violates the cosmos yet agiin   
   Deadsoul questions peel off, robot reel -   
   'There!  That yellow dot.  Here it comes in close-up.   
   Do you see the tiny prick of orange flame?'   
   Would that be the moment of disaster?   
   Do you think they knew then what was happening?   
   Let's have a fix on the sequence of events -   
   We'll turn to NASA - what do you have there, Tom?   
   You fellows worked out yet the schedule of disaster?   
   Well, an opinion then.  An inspired guess?   
   What went on within the capsule?  - I mean,   
   The final moments - would you like to comment?   
   Rather not? Rather not comment?   
   Now that's unheard of, rather.   
      
   The most expensive anchorman in U.S.A.   
   Alas, is no exception.  A rival station chases   
   Ratings with a clone - they make a perfect   
   Koppel.  Aliens, still your groans, their viewers   
   Love them.  And strangers may not take their offering   
   Past the shrine; they'll only feed the faithless.   
   I plead the pangs of a space nut, self-confessed   
   Astronaut /manqué/; keep long liquid vigils   
   Launching day, East or West and nonaligned.   
   Agonise on every failure, celebrate   
   The triumphs.  I'd volunteer for a voyage   
   But fear I'll stand accused of my profession   
   Which tends to the dramatic.  Earthbound I remain   
   Vicarious stowaway on every thrust in space.   
      
   The /Challenger/ will be replaced.  And astronauts.   
   But not the most expensive anchorman in U.S.A.   
      
      
   ["Selected Poems: Idanre, A Shuttle in the Crypt, Mandela's Earth"   
   by Wole Soyinka   
   Methuen, 2001 ISBN 0-413-76460-5]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)