Life passes at a breakneck rate.
Brisk as text messages.
Time only for the executive summary.
The Dummies' Guide.
The podcast highlights.
The quick synopsis.
The cursory look.
The celeb gossip.
The abridged audiobook.
The no-frill stats. The FAQs.
Reading on a need-to-know basis.
Tweets of Breaking Sports News.
The World at a Glance
in the commuter freesheet.
History a volley of bullet points.
Fair Game
The elephant in the room
is sick of being ignored,
presumed too thick-skinned
to have feelings of its own.
It raises its trunk in protest
like a megaphone: a corrugated
tube to amplify its message,
trumpet its urgency.
But the hall threatens to erupt.
Who allowed this cretin entry?
How did a beast so monstrous
squeeze into this conference space?
Should Security not have seized
its cutthroat tusks outside?
This ghastly animal must be sent
packing, dumped in the nearest jungle.
Get this elephant out of the room.
A show of hands will be enough to lend
the motion force: Let there be no free
speech for outlandish species here.
Dennis O'Driscoll
from Dear Life, published this month by Anvil Press
