Chicago Typewriter

Poem by Rocco Valentini

Artwork Sourced From Pinterest. Artist: Norm Saunders.

Chicago Typewriter

by Antonio Rocco S. (Rocco Valentini)

ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ
Ｄｉｎｇ．
↵
Every keystroke of the typewriter
Hammers another nail
Into the coffin of public memory.
Every headline is a headstone. 
Every byline is occupied by a hitman.

ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ
Ｄｉｎｇ．
↵
Truth never makes the morning edition— 
It shows up later
As a chalk outline in the editor’s column— 
A body of work riddled with lies, 
Cut down by the Chicago typewriter 
Of a crooked journalist
Whose sentences spill more blood
Than bullets ever could.

ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ
Ｄｉｎｇ．
↵
By the time truth hits the print,
The blood has already dried.
The Overton Window
Is what forms when it clots.
Only then do the coroners,
Who call themselves “critical thinkers,”
Arrive to sift through the guts of a problem
They never had any intention of solving.

ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ
Ｄｉｎｇ．
↵
The average person's mind
Is a collection 
Of platitudes and contradictions
Dumped on them by their newsstand.
Each time this landfill
Accumulates enough trash
To form a new layer,
They call it "personal growth".

ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ  ⓒⓛⓐⓒⓚ
Ｄｉｎｇ．
↵
The typewriter's bell is a flatline— 
It is the last breath of truth,
Struggling to escape
Before the page is torn out,
Forgotten.