Sunday 21 May 2017

No News...



I don’ read books or anyfin,
ol’ fashion people do,
an’ I’m young y’know
an’ I’ve ‘air to crimp  an’ knees t’show – Har Har! 
Is this dress too short or not short enough?

The lads love me cos we talk of fins
that are importunt like, like what (?),
well fins in the neighbour’ud,  who’s screwing who,
an’ wevver fat ol’ Missis Smiff will kick Jonny
up ‘is arse‘n’kick ‘im owt like she said she would
when she found ‘im kissin Mike (yuk yuk),
y’know Mike ooze got’is brain arf missin.’ 
Har Har!

Prime Min’ster?  T’resa May innit? 
Tell trufe I don’ give a shit ‘bout anyfin in pollytics.   
They never do nowt for me, she’s Tory innit? 
Watch news on telly?  Nah, its borin’ innit? 
Wars?  Don’ care.  Famine?  What’s that?  Oh ‘unger.
Don’ care, only care what’s in my belly! (LOL)!

Newspapers?  Already said don’ read books or anyfin, 
I’m not ol’ fashion y’know, but I text’n’fins
so know evryfin that’s wurf anyfin I need t’know.

Anna :o]

Brendan at Toads writes brilliantly of how ‘The News’ is fed to us in this world of ours, where we are constantly bombarded with ‘News’ here there and everywhere. 

News and its intention to educate has now become a source of entertainment and often is presented thus.  It creates the shallow world of ‘celebrities’’ and then does its best to destroy same, cluttering their world with the sharks that are paparazzi, this especially so of the tabloid gutter press, who frequently find new depths to sink to.  Sadly, this presentation of ‘news’ is popular with its readers… (And this I worry about, worry about how society is being dumbed down.)

What did the (gutter) press do when Dr. David Dao was dragged off the United Airlines plane – they sought to find ‘dirt’ in his history and joined Oscar Munoz in victim-blaming.  Why in heavens name did they do that?   Luckily not all newspapers are the same and the Independent gives a fair opinion on this.

I could rant on forever but won’t.

Oddly enough, when reading Brendan’s post, the first thing that came to mind was that of an ex-colleague, a lovely kind young woman, who had no interest in the world outside her own sphere and had little knowledge of it – and so I wrote of her.   I could never understand why she didn’t want to know.

Image:  Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Author:  Bobbie Johnson

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Funny yet at the same time not funny (real) Well captured

Kim M. Russell said...


I love the way you've captured the dialect and the attitude in this poem, Anna!

Anonymous said...

tru dat. innit.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff Anna - the commercial press did this to themselves, sensationalizing the news, dead-ending the business in a circus of sensationalism other media commodes much louder and faster and more brightly. There is a wholesale rejection of establishment press for the self-media of social and texting: the news does become local and pressing, what an individual needs to know: But the siloing of that means the individual only thinks they know what's going on, they get unprocessed and uncritical news flashes that nipple up the moment without giving any real information and clue what to do next. A liberal democracy fails exactly there (or rather, with the commercial truth-tellers who sold us all out). Great diction here, raw and real and right on the money. This is the world we become.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

I love your excellent use of the vernacular here, Anna. I think those who determinedly dont want to know have more peace of mind than the rest of us. But I NEED to know, so it wouldnt work for me. Excellent capture here. I can hear and see her clearly.

brudberg said...

Ouch.. yes the news of who fucks who... news and slander go together, and maybe tabloid press have adopted to that... Love the voice (something you have to be native to do)

hedgewitch said...

Love the perfect singsong of the vernacular, and the great void behind it--or perhaps not a void, but a self-contained micro-universe of everything tiny and inconsequent that people prefer to focus on, maybe because they just can't deal with anything else.

Claudia said...

yeah - i still find it difficult to find a good balance between keeping me informed about what's going on in the world and just drown in too much information. i recently read that a farmer about 100 years ago got so much information in his whole life like what we get within a week

Jim said...

Hey Anna, I enjoyed reading here today. I maybe in the "old" bracket but for me the skirts are never too short. Not even back in the early 70's when they were less than four inches long. I read the paper some, not all, online. Most times I print screen the Jumbos and work them on my printouts later.
..

Susie Clevenger said...

Perhaps I would be better off if I didn't care about the news. I feel these days I am walking a surreal line between truth and alternate facts. Brainwashing does rob one of reality. Enjoyed your approach to the prompt.