No news is good news

The news
Such as it is
Lately
Offends
Alarms
And provokes me
Until I want to look away
Blind myself to the barbaric slayings
The killings
The murders
The hate crimes
The wars
The storms
The wildfires
And the political mayhem
That is the norm of the day

I want to pretend
None of this is real
And substitute my own version of reality
A life without Putin
And the slaughter of innocents
A world without Trump
And his cascade of lies and falsehoods
A time without mass murders
Shooters cutting down families
School children
And concert goers
A peaceful, gentle life
We can only imagine
With kindness, civility and decency
The norm
Not the exception