Newsline.

There was a TV screen

running in the back of my head

with bright lights and bold faced type

streaming below the solemn face

of the too-pretty-to-be-smart woman

reading crises off her prompter

with a cue card that reads 'slight frown'

She's talking about something

it must be important because there's a banner

streaking yellow across the screen

talking of rupture and shattering worlds

breaking news in bulletpoint

-There's a killer on the loose-

and I blinked

maybe to change the channel

or to just absorb the hidden conflict

between her pitch perfect tone ( 'concern' )

-reported in the area of-

and sculpted make-up that declared

I am invincible untouchable

and I agreed with her

- around 5'10 dark-complexioned-

Nothing could touch her

could reach through those layers of light

the semi-solid fragments of ground commodities 

coated around her careful bones

and fragile face

She was the face of perfection

and safe in her well-lit world

-perhaps posing as a salesman-

I mentally sighed at the comparison

pushing my hair back

with the soapy hand still wrinkled

from water and wear

and go to answer the doorbell

looking up into the tanned face

of a a man who smiles and says

-may i come in- .....