a 4-minute soliloquy
says the etv newsreader
his face on quite straight

(was he musing his way
through the evening news)

a 4-minute soliloquy
is the state we are in
papering over we are

(somewhere it was said
that 9 minutes a day
is all it takes men
to be fathers

in our fatherless nation
where 5 million mothers
are single parents)

a 4-minute soliloquy
not 15 minutes of reading
to a child meaning gaining
1 million written words a year

a 4-minute soliloquy
not 67 minutes of doing good
as we are ritually reminded
(as we need to be reminded
in the flash of the media)

a 4-minute soliloquy
no declamation or speech
dramatic or otherwise
(was it a quick monologue)

a 4-minute soliloquy
no oration or lecture
rather painful introspection
(to a wayward juvenile)

thoughtful and brooding
mindful of later suffering
the slings and arrows
of comrades affronted

the horse-trading has begun