Total eclipse

I bend my head to the large pages of the morning paper
Spread over my laps
And see the light fading fast
The stories are as dark as the ink with which they are written
So much tension captured in those pages
It’s a miracle that the paper has not caught fire
The photographs show grim faces reacting to grim situations
A few laughing faces but it’s only for the camera

I read of one day’s of worth of news and it includes
Treasury looting that makes Abacha look like an amateur
A boat sinking with all passengers on board
Plane crashes, collapsed buildings,
Mass burial given to whole villages by an earthquake,
Mudslides,
Religious and ethnic strife
Kidnapping of foreigners
From the Niger Delta to Iraq
Lots of obituaries, no single birth!

Page by page the horrors unfold until I fold them up at the last page
Then I raised my head in realization saying
“It wasn’t as dark as this yesterday or the day before, before…”
Cured of my illusions
I suddenly knew what to expect in future morning papers
A slow but steady advance to…
A Total eclipse!