listening to the news
that brings disasters of all kind
with reliable regularity
     thanks to our sensationalist media

you may be tempted to believe
the world is going straight to hell
apocalypse is near & unavoidable

     whether by asteroids or comets
     the Russians or Americans or Chinese
    
fact is that rising ocean levels
are much more dangerous than changing presidents
flooding the fields and homes of millions
     in the lower lying islands of the South Pacific

the cold oblivion of the powerful
about the real people’s tragedies
is what I find most missing
in the so-called news