Alternate Facts
       

We never thought it could happen here—
the poisoned, the disappeared—

these tunnels a network of news channels—
server room, keyboards, screens aglow

on damp, earthen walls—the reporter
bludgeoned in her bed & found

by her daughter—see this passage here?
this is where we shuttle journalists

through to California—our cell towers
are disguised as olive trees, but drones

pick them off, so we rebuild—don't mind
these spiders: their venom is better

than state-sanctioned firing squads—
how we lost half our staff, their families—

& don't mind the darkness pressing
against you here in the underground—

it is the medium we move news through
now that the mobs have bought The Machine—

if I'm not back by morning, I was caught
& tortured by order of decree—

our Great Leader wants us all dead—
you, your loved ones & me.

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Copyright © 2018 Sonia Greenfield All rights reserved
from American Parable
Coal Hill Review
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission