The chop of helicopters overhead
does not create a happy atmosphere.
I’m not too old to recollect the dread
machines surveilling us and shooting tear
gas canisters when I attended school,
and though today they’re shooting news for us,
at best it’s just a waste of dirty fuel;
at worst it spurs the audience to fuss.

The presence agitates. The throb disturbs.
The camera can’t provide a useful view.
Competing stations broadcast pics and blurbs.
The more we’re shown, the less we see that’s true.
A pox on whirlybirds! – our aery flaw.
There ought to be (and used to be) a law.