NaPM 5 April 2022

[TranquillityBase]

At 6 months
he was placed in front of the television
to quiet his crying
and TV baby was born again.
TV baby believed what he saw.
TV baby loved Zorro, and Matt Dillon,
and Lassie, and Fury.
TV baby became so hysterical
when John Wayne died in the Alamo
he had to be removed from the theatre.
TV baby wanted to be Taras Bulba’s son
and in third grade, dreamt that a horde of Cossacks
would ride up as he walked home from school
and he would leap on a horse 
and ride away from a troubled family.
TV baby learned how to be a spy and seduce women
from Sean Connery
before he could drive a car.
TV baby watched the rise and fall of the Third Reich
and had his mother sew him a swastika armband
that he wore while playing Risk.
TV baby saw Khartoum fall to the Mahdi in 3-D
and sang Men of Harlech with the Welshmen
who held Rorke’s Drift against the Zulu hordes.
TV baby watched Viet Nam and the Watergate hearings 
on the nightly news.
TV baby believed everything he saw,
and thought he was seeing everything.
God stuck him with a pin and said,
“You’re just dreaming”.
TV baby spent 50 years living down the dreams.
Poor TV baby.