A Poem I Wrote Recently

Saw It On TV

The TV remote must be broken
I click the buttons
But the channel doesn’t seem to change
On the screen
Is the figure
Of a malnourished little girl
Cold and hungry
I think we’re supposed to watch her starve to death
These reality programs are hard to understand sometimes

I really don’t want to be watching this
I keep waiting for Sally Struthers
And a pledge for money
But neither comes
Just that poor little girl
Starving on the screen

I change the channel manually
But still the same haunting image
She lives in a home
Made of aluminum siding
She’s covered in dirt
Innocent to the rest of the world
Both a gift
And a curse

I wonder what horrible creature
What vicious regime
Twisted government
Hater of mankind
Could allow this to happen to a little girl
In one’s country

I try to turn off the TV
For some reason
Nothing happens
The child is soon replaced
By a malnourished family
They stare at me
At the camera
With blank faces
As if seeing the camera for the first time
I wonder how the cameraman
Can just stare back in silence
How can someone be so indifferent?
How can people ignore something like this?

And then I begin to remember
I don’t own a TV set.
I’m looking out my own window.

--Duane Gundrum, 2003

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