[Newspoetry] gulf war syndrome

[Joe Futrelle]

new study shows
US population suffered
massive collective brain damage
during the gulf war

television viewers exposed to
a media agent known as "CNN"
show damaged cells in
brain regions responsible for
critical thought, inquiry
idealism

researchers were unable to find subjects
who had not been exposed to
this agent

the researchers scanned
their own brains
and found themselves to have impaired
reasoning skills
throwing the results of their study
into question
except that nobody cared

the story made the front page
was given a quarter of an inch
and continued on page G-32,
a page consisting largely of
a department store ad

on the rest of the front page
sound bites from this week's 24-hour
news story were hastily assembled into
awkward, sentence-like constructions
to decorate photo-op photos of
photographers and microphones surrounding
some guys in dark suits
their faces limp
like poker players, all-in
waiting for the river

--
Joe Futrelle
Editor-within-chief,
Newspoetry dot com