Sad Tiny Sound Bites

News at 11

Warren Beatty will now be remembered as the old guy
who screwed up at the Oscars.
Forget his landmark films, his dangerous Clyde Barrow looks.
That scene in Reds where he and Keaton reunite at the train station,
The one that left you breathless:
I saw it in a commercial the other day for Citibank.

All of us reduced to sad tiny sound bites in the end.
The dissection is unceasing, the chipping away,
leaving so little standing.
We play Jenga with people’s lives,
one tweak at a time.

Cosby? Remember him: America’s dad?
Ellen promoted kindness and turned out to be cruel.
Fauci can barely make a dinner reservation now.
We yearn for something inviolable.
Something TikTok can’t shred to pieces.
Or pitiless time send crashing down.