Currently Reading Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee By Charles J. Shields see related

Tonight’s Top Story

At six p.m. the anchor mouths a greeting
and smiles before dipping into the nation’s
high school politics, the never-ending war,
and the newest prescription recall.

He farms out reports on the newest
genocide and American obesity, on crazy
dictators and the rising cost of gas, on
corrupt corporate business and nursing homes.

As the time ticks by, the segments quicken
until the information is so compact it ricochets
around the nation’s dens until it lands in
a blue bowl, a budding flower, or perhaps an ear.

In the final segment the tempo slows and sound
begins as a reporter interviews a man who has
worked at a circus for forty years: cannon man,
lion tamer, magician, and now a ticket taker.

The anchorman silently says good night and the
screen goes black. Behind closed doors, the executives
hope for high Nielsen numbers. Elsewhere, the circus
man drinks with the clowns and trapeze artists.