Dirty Den Returns

Secularisation is the decline of soap operas,

wide bands of shelving in the newsagent

once held story arcs as fact,

all the ledes laughed at the earth yet

to be scattered,

because we didn't turn to tv guides

for speculation,

just a pinch of what was surely

to come,

somebody always had a cousin's friend's gardener

who had been to Australia

and so knew what happened in Neighbours six months

in advance

and my god it was enough,

our hearts and minds were full

where now the fog of war for attention,

dozens of voices needing to say with 

certainty,

C has got to happen because of D,

the pulse tapping out blips

retroactively,

my chest palpitating

where it once glided along to rhythms 

of the media past.