Death of a Newspoet

a hollow look in the eyes
carpal tunnel syndrome
clutching a 56k modem

discarded laptops line the alleyway
wrapped in copies of USA Today
this flophouse once had DSL, now
just a single phone line

they share phone cords
mice,
Mallarme anthologies,
rubber cement

pirated cable brings them CNN,
CSPAN, on a 9-inch black and white
TV

they watch the hearings,
listening for rhymes

some will never break out
of the news cycle
newspoetry cannot pay
the phone, cable bills

they are addicts
live feed-to-feed
require larger and larger browsers
for the same effect

there is no more news today
just an obituary
one for the archives
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