AARON ESPY

6 O'CLOCK HEADLINES

One by one they alternate tragedies.
News anchor tongues
thump like a beaten drum.
I found you there, limp.
Eyes vacant,
stuffed like sandwich meat
between the stale white bread
of a class action suit
and a tax feud
in congress.

A fireman dies.

Cropped tightly,
clips short and piercing
to save airtime,
dramatic enough
to recapture distracted stares,
your sacrifice measured
by ratings impact.

Tomorrow shouldered lenses
and slack microphone cords
will chase a fresher story
while a fresh grave cries
for a headstone
and a fatherless seven year old
cries alone.

There is news to cover.

Aaron Espy is a firefighter/paramedic in the Seattle area. For years a “closet poet”, Espy wrote for personal healing until the death of a fellow firefighter in January, 1995. His first firehouse poem was published the following month. Since that time, 60 of his poems have seen publication in fire service books, magazines and newspapers. His first book of poetry, Standing in the Gap, was published in 2000. Two of his poems are etched on the I.A.F.F. Memorial, a monument to North America’s fallen professional firefighters, located in Memorial Park in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Several of Espy’s stories are scheduled for publication in upcoming Chicken Soup for the Soul releases, Chicken Soup for the Grieving Soul, and Chicken Soup for the American Soul. Espy is also a freelancer and has written as a columnist for the Scripps-Howard West Sound Sun.