0019 Supabug Of The Mind Poem by Michael Shepherd

There’s an infectious bug
racing through the British meeja
especially TV and radio,
corrupting every interview,
reducing interviewers and
viewers to mindlessness
and no-one notices,
no-one tries to stop it:

H.O.W.

‘How pleased are you to have won this match? ’ or
‘How sorry are you to have lost this fight? ’

That’s on a scale of…?

In the legal profession, that’s known as
a ‘leading question’ – as in
‘How sorry are you to have killed your wife? ’

‘Hey, wait a minute, mate, I din’ kill ‘er,
I fort this was menna be a cor’ a law…? ’

They’re all infected – in a mere matter of a month or two..

What are you supposed to answer?
The incompetent interviewers leave
their poor victim - modest, proud, speechless -
squirming on the hook –
how are they supposed to answer?

‘Well, not particularly pleased,
since he was an under-achieving also-ran
that my manager picked for this fight
as his last pay-cheque before retiring
and to boost my ratings and
my managers’ ten-per…’

‘Well, not particularly sorry,
since my manager says the rematch will bring in
even more dosh and
it’s a sure thing and paid for
that I’ll beat him…’

* * *

So how pleased are you to be alive
to read this useful heads-up,
- on a scale, say, of
Genesis to Revelation?