The Public Interest

It’s on the border between right and wrong,
Though maybe it’s more like no man’s land,
With all that fetid dirt and gossip,
Justifying break-ins and hacking,
For a few inches of Sunday diversion,
From the boredom before evening TV.
We’ll send in our trained reporters,
Fresh from the college of no-conscience,
Taking the role from the state as arbiter,
And claiming to be defenders of ethics.

They can spell out “ethics” and “morals” too,
A nice turn of stock phrase and cliché,
Bound for the dustbins they root through,
For letters from lovers or accountants,
All sustenance for the strange animals,
The shadowy invertebrates in the alleys,
And I’d read anything they print,
As diversion from the pit and vipers,
Slowly it fills me, kills me, buries me,
But deep down it does me good to die.