48 hours of the news

and the news floods us with greedy images and
video non sequitors of dogs sadly swimming through
the mud flood of other states
other lands and cities on other
more dangerous
winds and
pieces of roof siding and tiles heli-
coptering deadly past slightly insecure newscasters in
corporate ponchos yanking at the gawkers
around them
oh you didn't have insurance
oh your basements flooded lets take a look at that
oh the old man can't climb in the raft
oh you guys are packing sandbags from the beach
oh that was your car that fell into the sinkhole
oh you didn't have insurance
and it continues this way and i keep watching with dry
bronx windows with my five stupid mass hysteric cans of tuna fish
and my air conditioner on

but later
much much later
around 11pm
it changes

and the newscasters on location don't have anybody to
yoke into frame
and the camera lenses are all destroyed and sandblasted from
80+ mile per hour winds rendering their targets
dreamlike and out of focus
and the moon pulls over new jersey evacuation areas and
they are just standing there
alone
soaked in the weird escapee silence
excitement drained from their souls and sometimes
they find odd miserable poetry
almost exasperated with their homebase anchor family with looks
on their face like
what the fuck do you want me to say

and all the houses are empty and they
preside over these darkened neighborhoods with
crumbling keep-it-together soliloquies
pacing around abandoned suburban streets
attempting to equip broadway smiles tinged with boredom some
small panic an almost existential countenance to
face the unknown elemental plague

they become like happy children reunited to parents
when people wake up the next day and they can
gratifyingly mouthfuck them with mics and fill
that previous evening's severe swirling questioning silence
with the sounds of people excited to
complain and posture before
their homes and the energy returns to them and
they are like
these homes
emptied of chilling nature
drying in the cloudy morning
thrilled to be around humanity

except i now know that i would rather
do nothing but watch
late night lonely
hurricane news