Selective Screening

The media cliche about 'the family breakfast'
used to be the scene where middle class fathers
would 'head' the table by insisting 'his' family
be silent whilst he read his broadsheet newspaper.

These papers were as big as they were self important.
Whilst he held his up he could not seen,
which was offered as proof that he was reading.
Nobody knew what he was looking at,
but his hands conducted the silence of the children
whilst they hold the paper by it's edges.

Now we isolate ourselves with screens
of different sizes, from mobile phones to lap tops,
I-pads and the rest, all of which absorb more
of our attention than we choose to realize,
to diminishing effect. They are the new broadsheets.
We have to sit still to be attentive of them
and through them we screen out everybody
and everything, whilst they keep our fingers busy.