The Late News
George Bowering
Well the national news on the radio
is that depressing United States bullshit
about Vietnam, how much can the ear take?
It is after all Sunday night, TV night of hilarity,
of a world, staged
for the man in the armchair,
wrested from the U.S. State Department
for the hours seven oclock till
late news.
Stay with us, round world,
we wont be like this much longer, we have only ourselves
& some guilty bystanders to get rid of.
(those unmusical syllables
as much as the ears can take
because the ears lead to
comfortable grooves in the brain)
Time magazine’s Man of The Year is Mister Death
dressed in jungle green, nattily decked out
with torpedo necktie. & we are no more than the sands
of Time.
Give us time,
& we will run out,
& there will be time
for the late weather forecast.
Heavy overcast
with occasional showers
& little change in temperature.
Outlook: gray skies
right here on the ground.
Bowering, George. “The Late News.” The Open Letter 6 (Feb. 1967): 19.