USED PEOPLE

About journalism, I could see now what it had done to me, and so many of my friends and colleagues. So much violence to take in as daily fare, so much of other people's pain, and nowhere to put it except in a few pages of copy, or a couple of minutes of film. No wonder I knew no more than two or three journalists still on their first marriage, and so many who were semi-alcoholic, or bitter and cynical, or just weird.

WHORES

We are peculiarly unchoosy whores.
We'll let ourselves be used
by anyone, deliver any message,
lie, boast, or threat;
be inspiring or wallow
in the gutter as you choose.
And through it all, we'll feel ourselves
untouched, above the fray.
Objectivity is our defense;
we're just reporters --
it isn't us who say and do
these things, it's you.
Between us, folks, of course
that's largely nonsense.
We have as many, maybe more,
opinions of the world as you.
We're outraged, bemused,
or angered by the things we see,
|and in subtle ways
we let you know our views.
The best that we can do
is try to keep remembering
we're supposed to be just mirrors,
able only to produce reflections,
not reality. And even those reflect,
as much as anything, ourselves.

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