Check It Out!
The real scoop on those newspapers you see in the grocery store.
©1989, 2007, Bob Beeman
Updated 2007-08-19 @ 16:30 EDT (UT-4)
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  At a quarter to nine I was standing in line,
At my neighborhood grocery store.
I'd unloaded my cart so the checker could start
With the job they were paying her for.
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
Well, I thought I was done - I was ready to run
'Till I looked in the newspaper racks.
And a paper in there had a headline so rare,
That it stopped me right dead in my tracks.
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
It declared that some spies had come down through the skies
From their alien base on the Moon!
So you'd better beware, 'cause they're prowling out there -
They may be in your neighborhood soon!
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
Then I read of this diet - you really should try it
To shape up your flabby physique!
If you eat only yams (and perhaps a few clams),
You can lose forty pounds -- in a week!
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
And I learned so much more, as I stood in the store :
How a rock star returned from the dead!
Why Atlantis may rise! How to win a big prize!
And a way to make gold out of lead!
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
Well, I couldn't just leave, 'cause I knew that I'd grieve
If I left without buying the rag.
So I threw it on top of the 'burgers and pop,
And I carried it home in my bag.
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
Then I stayed up 'till two, and I read it straight through,
This paper I'd bought in the store.
And I tried to make sense of a lot of events
Other media seem to ignore.
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
Now I'm wondering why other papers I buy
Never print any stories or views
Like the ones in the back of the grocery rack ...
Could it be that they censor the news?

      - R. H. Beeman © 1989, 2007. All Rights Reserved.
DO NOT STEAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL!
This poem copyright 1989, 2007 by Robert H. Beeman.
 
Please respect the ownership of this copyrighted material.
Do not copy. Instead, link to this page:
http://www.bee-man.us/poetry/check_it_out.html


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This is an older poem that I wrote for a meeting of the Phoenix Poetry Society branch of the Arizona State Poetry Society.

The original version was very rough, but due to suggestions made by other members it got a lot better. Of course you the reader are the judge of its merits or lack thereof.

This poem is written in traditional iambic ballad form with each quatrain having a pattern of 4, 3, 4, 3 feet and an
AA
B
CC
B
rhyme scheme.


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©1989, 2007, Robert H. Beeman
www.bee-man.us

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