Every time I turn on the news, a tragic story usually greets me. These days, those stories are practically all that fill the air ways. And this poem recognizes this. "Disaster, Disaster" by Ellie White is a rather short poem about the tragic events that occur, the passive attitude we have garnered towards them, and how people always seem to be more interested to watch and more eager to report these stories. Through it all, Ms. White has managed to retain a graceful style and a short composition which led me to adoring this poem.
The entire poem is very well written and evoked very strong emotions from me. However, I found that certain lines impacted me more than others. The lines "Murder and war/ Now look at this puppy/ And come back for more" hit me with the strength of a freight train. Have we, as a society, become so passive and used to these disasters that we can simply listen to stories of murder and war, look at a commercial featuring cute puppies and then return to the disaster without being so much as slightly perturbed? The answer to that, as the poem shows, is yes. This horrible truth is what is suggested by Ms. White and I find that I cannot disagree with her. This is what our society has come to. Two other lines that held a lot of meaning to me were these: " It pays  to pretend/ To care." This is another horrible truth, but a truth none the less. It is disgusting that many people who claim to care about people who have been victimized by disasters are only pretending. That the only reason that they do this is so that they can say that they helped people who have ravaged by war, natural disasters, or something of the sort. This is the reality of the world that we live in and I cannot help but be grateful to Ms. White for writing such a moving and truthful poem. A poem that has altered my way of thinking.