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Poem: Breaking News

people in dublin

This poem is called Breaking News

This is it guys
It’s happening
Clear the decks
This is breaking
I want pictures
Get the victim names
Find them on Facebook
Cross reference with LinkedIn:
We need names, faces, stories, now

Quick guys, quick
Stay ahead of the curve
This is the A&E
Not brain surgery
Find the hashtags
Twitter, Instagram
What’s trending?
What’s going on out there?

We have to be first with this
Video guys, we need video
Is there video?
Get on it
Draft up analysis
Open it for comments
See what it stirs up
We need his story
What’s his story?
Why did he do it?

Where are our headlines guys?
Massacre? Carnage? Bloodbath?
Get me a thesaurus
Is it enough?
Numbers people,numbers
This is happening
It’s big
It’s now
Get me some real numbers
What’s happening?

We don’t need all that stuff
It’s taking too long
Nobody cares
We can’t afford to wait
Go back to it next week
Get me tweets from world leaders
Get this on our Most Read

Be ready for the second wave
Are we getting hits?
Don’t forget the advertising slots
Review that linked content and suggested articles
How are the stats looking?
Are we up?

It’s too quiet
We have to seed the sharing
Or we will be lost
Can we get some comments going?
Get the ball rolling
Reaction guys, we need a reaction

Where are the damn headlines?
What’s going on?
We have to
Tell the people
What’s going on.

This is it guys
It’s happening
This is breaking
Clear the decks
Update the homepage
I want to see pictures
One with both politicians together?
Quick guys, quick
We have to
Stay ahead of the curve

Donal Kelly, Summer 2016

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