Thousands of Wounds
Make only one newspaper article.²
We don’t watch news anymore—
Translation: we are worried
Our people will be on it—³
Journalism curdles all one’s mind to phrases!⁴
“Our Disinformation campaign is complete when
Everything the American public believes is False.”⁵
We learn more about the world by lying on the
Couch drinking gin out of the bottle—
Than by watching the News.⁶
Newspapers report doings
In lives that we do not share—⁷
Markets define the news and not
The Experience of the Besieged.⁸
Media always report—but the full Truth is: …⁹
A Weary man enters the broadcasting stations
Seeking a cheering item of News—and exits Slain—¹⁰
¹ Naomi Shihab Nye, Blood
² Guillaume Apollinaire tr. Anne Greet, Shadow
³ George Abraham, Inheritance: a Translation
⁴ H.G. Wells, The Land Ironclads
⁵ William Casey (CIA director)
⁶ Garrison Keillor
⁷ Richard Wright, Black Boy
⁸ Carolyn Forché, Introduction to Against Forgetting
⁹ Eman Al-astal, Half Truths
¹⁰ Khalid Abu Khalid tr. Jayyusi & Nye, Prayer to the Tremor