Nietzsche's Cafe

P. Michael Campbell

1. Surfing

...the remote with an attentiton span of say ten seconds
max and complete mastery of a hundred channels
give or take a dozen and so many more important
things to do except it is so cold that I just lie here
surfing and surfing through a morning of movies
and maudlin spectacular guests whatever they call them 
on Sally and Jenny and Joan and later Phil and Maury
and Oprah this is fun except it isn't really and there's
that news van again and the infomercial where they spray
that guy's bald spot with black spray paint and flash 
an 800 number but I'm already thirteen channels north
watching kayaking and a black and white western about 
a slow-witted cowpunch with a thread of spit hanging 
from his mouth or a sprig of tall grass...is it Nietzsche's 
cage as the typo would have it or some fool's global village?