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.
