Rx

Rx
Kevin E. Cleary

Every time I
watch the news now
I think of the protagonist
from Fahrenheit 451
and that part when
his boss tells him
the public gets spoon-fed
crosswords and statistics
by the television
to feel informed and intelligent.

It always strikes me
as odd when I fall
into a CNN coma
That it’s easier to remember
to ask my doctor
about prescription WellbutrinTM
than to recall the name
of the leader of that country where
there’s that genocide worse
than the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helen’s
and the name of that dude
who may or may not
have killed the Kennedys
and the Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr
or how many people died today in Iraq
versus how many people died
in Vietnam before the 1968 Tet Offensive
which trial studies in California have shown
to cause cancer in lab rats.

But I’m not allowed to forget
what happened on 9-11,
and don’t you know
it’s unpatriotic
to want a second opinion?

Fortunately, there’s prescription RitalinTM
so I can get back
to focusing on the freedom
the terrorists hate us for.
If only I could afford health insurance.