# A Television Poem

#### By Jennifer Siegel

To: kaufman@netreach.net
Subject: Poem about television

Hi, I love your web page. Roger Waters' album "Amused To Death" is one of my favorites. I am taking a mass media class that has really opened my eyes even more to the consumer world that television heavily supports. I wrote a poem that relates to my feelings about television and how it makes me feel. I thought I would share it with you.

PEOPLE EITHER RUN FROM HER OR WALK ALL OVER HER

she walked out on a narrow branch and tried to remember
decide
believe
that looks don't matter,
anyway
she could always
cover her dingy hair
with her bandannas.

sick twisted
grey and white
its not like there's anything left to fight give
forgive.

not rejecting
death
but not dead
her heart still pumps
but his
expression is empty
her gut gone.

her heart unmoved,
pumps
but there's no vital fluid of life
left
and a stale parched sucking
cramps
her inner ear.

she thinks about making redress
putting things normal
catching passion
but she doesn't feel it.

she tries to care about the interconnected web of life
that is supposedly
this fucking
wonderful divine thing
but she doesn't feel like it, doesn't feel it.

and her Seinfeld is
semi-amusing and the pizza hut
she ate made her feel
bloated but
she's never satisfied
even after the third hour of reruns and the 7th beer and she doesn't feel like much.

and she can remind herself that it is like that 'cause she's in america
and apathy
unconcern
passiveness
is a fortress
the television provides
and no one invades.

its subtle and
creeps in
like time and mind washing
like seasons
like 7th grade,

and she wishes she had weddings to go to rituals to execute
ceremonies to attend
magic to perform,

but its gray outside
and inside
the television
roars.

no one hears her insights anyway
so she doesn't feel like it

and who needs a life?