Day 4 NaPoWriMo

Day 4 of 30 in the NaPoWriMo Challenge and I promise that not every poem from here on in will be inspired by the news! However, the basic sentiment here is one I genuinely hold. Another “star” does something spectacularly dumb that will probably attract derision when they actually need help. There is still a fellow human being at the centre of the carnage.



Rage against the MaSheen

Most of the time
I avoid
“celeb” stories
pretending to be news.
They are wolves
wearing Grandma’s bed shawl
hoping to devour
intellect and integrity.

But big time public
unravellings of the psyche,
where actions become
estranged from
common sense
move me:

Britney Spears
shaving her hair;
George Michael
driving into Snappy Snaps;
that sort of thing.

The latest is Charlie Sheen
finding out (the hard way)
a blue collar audience
can distinguish between
real talent and a freak show
in just fifteen minutes.
Turns out they DO know
shit from shinola.

I want to take their hand,
lead them from the world
of artifice and cheap sparkledust
to a calm English tea room
where Earl Grey and oak panels
can talk sense into them.

Let them eat cake laced with
love, understanding,
St John's wort
and home spun wisdom
until their inner compass
finds magnetic north again.

If that didn’t work,
I’d leave George and Charlie
to get on each other’s nerves
and argue over the bill.

Britney, I would take aside
hoping she’s the kind of girl
that seeks solace
in Father figures.