Does our watching those celebs
so wealthy & carefree
clear our drudgery’s cobwebs
thin out boredom’s debris?
Seen how, say, grocery clerks
carry on like show hosts
setting off verbal fireworks
with check-out line ripostes?
Do talk shows model us folks?
Or do talk shows inform
manipulate, joke & coax
us in how to perform?
… keeping up the banter in ubiquity
in a tiresome culture of obliquity