A Five to Ten Newsflash
Very early in the morning
You lay out the plastic tablecloth,
Which has become worn and tattered,
Over the old galvanize stand
Where you sell your newspapers.
You put a sheet of clean plastic
over the many tabloids you carry
And you nervously fiddle with your spectacles
While waiting for the first sale,
the same way you’ve done
over the past unknown number of years.
How long has it been
Since you started this job,
The one to be informing the world
Of the good and the bad,
How long have you been sitting there
Just waiting for someone to drive up
And say “Gimme a so and so.”
How long have you had those glasses
Those that used to be stylish in the sixties,
A bit too much in the seventies,
Out of style in the eighties,
And antique in the nineties,
And all you say is that,
“They go come back in style,”
Only because you can’t buy another pair.
Is this how you plan to raise
The ten children that you bore
On your mere newspaper salary,
Deprive them of the necessities,
Or do you see these things as luxuries,
Unable to buy them new shoes
Or vital books for school
Is this how you plan to raise them
Eh, newspaper woman, mother of ten?
Well if this how you like to live
Then I am happy for you
If it is not what you want
Then you can justify yourself
For not going after your goals
For not realising your dreams
By simply saying to yourself,
“If I doh do it den nobody will,”
And if you just saved the world
From not getting the news, eh
newspaperwoman.