Never

Never in my lifetime have I seen

So much, so fast, so soon.
Facts, ideas, opinions, innuendo,
Flying at me wherever I go to watch and listen.

Being 69, television’s child,
I remember Little Rock and Einstein’s dead,
and the Hungarian Revolt and Sputnik paranoia,
and Khrushchev in Disneyland,
and Selma fire hoses and Nicholas Katzenbach in Tuscaloosa,
and the funereal drumbeat,
and the Six Day war,
and Daley with a bullhorn and Kent State,
and the run-up to resignation (I just hated the Washington Post),
and helicopters over the embassy.

Lots of moments to ask
“What?” and
“Not that, too.”

But never have I seen triffids in the Oval Office,
making it look like any old room. Except for Clinton.

So many events have occurred on my TV that made me question
the viability and sustainability of the democracy:
Iran-Contra, the Bork and Thomas hearings, but not 9-11.

Because we are so many, all yearning to be free, and so driven
to speak out, and so diverse in our facts, ideas, and opinions.
That makes all the difference.