[Below is Ceremony, by Greg Simpson, which I often call the “world’s scariest poem.” This poem was one of the factors that influenced me to give up television for many years. Now, however, it is not just the television that influences and sometimes enslaves us–there are video games, our phones, and the internet. Simpson’s poem applies to all these as well.]
She sat quietly, in the electronics section of the Fred Meyer Department Store, with straight black hair, wearing a dress, knee-high socks and patent leather shoes. She must have been around three years old; her face just inches away from the television screen.
Innocence coupled with violence without the opportunity to make a distinction.
There were no other family members gathered, no witnesses, no special ceremony.
Her parents close by looking at a wall of monitors, trying to decide on which one to purchase; oblivious to their child’s baptism into the world.
The Word Like Fire 