This is
only a poem
but it will tell
all the slow news
How trail like
snail like
the slow news seeps like radioactivity
Not a sound bite
Not a nine second interview
with America's 'international guests'
who in
their 'cordon sanitairre'
were prepared for the hurricane
fed army rations
before being returned to tabloid stardom
(paid for their words?)
They had been put out, the TV interview implied
by all the dead people
cops with guns
the rioting, the looting
the lack of proper
toilets
In fact
the whole
'quite third world
atmosphere of the stadium'
Of course they deserved to get out
they were only on holiday after all...
Slowly,
Oh so slowly,
the slow news seeps
Saturday 3rd September 2005
one line on the front page
'It was as if being poor and black was a
contagious disease'
Slowly
black anger, pride
and humanity
across the globe
recognise the Texan sprawl
for the pogrom
it really is
Slow news
(Oh Brave new world that has such people in it...)
They're gonna raze that
city to the ground
and build another.