Thursday, April 2, 2015

Better Be What You Want

Ken Hughes

a researcher
at the University of Virginia

wanted a tiny sliver
of the Nixon-era tapes
he's spent his career studying

but was denied.

The Obama administration
is keeping secret

four seconds
of audio from
January 12 1973

because according to
a National Security Agency spokesperson

the information contained
in the span of time

it takes for Buzzfeed
to create and dissolve
its own memes

"would reveal information
that would impair
U.S. cryptologic systems or activities."

Historians concur
that the segment

probably refers to Lyndon Johnson
threatening to expose
the Nixon presidential campaign's attempts

to derail the 1968
peace talks in Paris

right when a little thing
called the Vietnam War
was going on.

Some would argue
in favor of its declassification

for freedom-of-information reasons.

However it really is
a detriment to pop music

as Madonna just released
her latest album "Rebel Heart"

and she could've made
a follow-up to her 2008 hit
with Justin Timberlake and Timbaland 
"4 Minutes"

called "4 Seconds."

Because maybe sometimes

"we only got 4 seconds
to save the world"

but at least
it has a good beat.

This poem © 2015 Emily Cooper.