We who live today seem to lurch from crisis to crisis
Playing at one getting bored and switching
Or singing a roundelay with several verses
Guns racism sexual violence poverty public ill-health
International relations tyranny foreign and domestic

It’s not that our attention span is limited
Though that no doubt is true
It’s that the outrages never end did I mention environmental catastrophe
And we can’t pay attention to all of them all the time
The brain cannot accomplish such massive multitasking

Probably ‘twas ever thus
But we had neither the transportation nor the communication
To know about it
And anyway our hands are full and overfull
With the lives that we can barely hold on to