You don’t read much poetry.
That’s an assumption on my part,
and I can’t say that I blame you.
Poetry is for everybody but
it can be hard to understand
or appreciate, and
it doesn’t always rhyme
and what the hell is up with that?
So this isn’t poetry,
because I want you to read it.
It is my opinion.
It is about what I think
you owe me and
what I owe you
and what we both deserve
as human beings.
We owe each other our honesty.
We owe each other our
best efforts to understand
the differences between news
and disinformation,
between facts and what people
are calling “fake news,”
which is a tricky new term for lies.
I could go on about
what news is
from the perspective of a guy
who studied journalism
and who wrote and edited news
for newspaper readers.
I’ll spare you that
(you’re welcome)
because I think
you already know what news is.
About those best efforts
that we owe each other:
I’m going to trust that the words
and pictures and videos
that you share with me and
the rest of the world
are not lies.
I need to be able to trust
that you think hard about
what you share before you share it.
I will not lie to you.
Let’s not disappoint each other.
Deal?
The Smith Compound 