My Love Affair with Diane Sawyer

Who’s to say it’s only a one-way street?
Maybe she intuits the fact that I love her.

Why do I? I am not Lesbian, though
No doubt I project quite a lot. (They say

She’s my good “shadow” I could not be.)
See: she’s up every morning and looking

More than great by the time my feet hit floors.
She is gorgeous. (I crave her chopped haircut!)

My husband, of course, says she’s sexy–
As we sit sipping caffeine, surveying

How Clintons have goofed, or George W.,
Arabs, Israelis. Another thing about Diane:

She is completely equal to her man–
Her co-anchor. They sit side by side. No

Patronizing–no Jane Pauley baby-doll. No
Walters who has grown too old and also

Has a crooked mouth. Ms. Sawyer is so
Just totally cool. Can’t you tell–she knows

Everything on every issue,
Goes into the hardest, hot-spot places

All over the globe. Arafat’s office,
When she is drenching wet and rain has poured.

(She never even gets sick–no sniffles!)
She doesn’t get panicked, as I do, flying.

She stopped an Israeli army convoy
By the side of the Jerusalem road

In her British Khakis–her hair blowing
But never a ratty mess. She forges

Into prisons. She comforts. She confronts.
She is one wonder woman! I love looking

At her clothes–and thank God for color
T.V. This morning she had on an aqua shell

Blouse and black tights, black rubber-sole flats.
I often gaze (as my spouse does) at her long,

Lovely legs, today covered. I found out
The reason. This woman wizard can dance–

On ice, outside ABC studio
In NYC on an ice rink. (Diane did

Not seem too cold, since she is oh so
Adaptable.) She’s not the slightest bit

Racist. She was dancing with an Afro-American
Dance group. Not missing a beat. Knew each

Turn to take, black topper-coat matching her
Pants. The whole U.S. sees her–maybe even

The world. I want my hairdresser to make
My locks to look like Diane’s. I am thinking

Of bleaching my hair blonde like hers. (Oh yes:
She’s thin.) I don’t know if Diane is divorced,

But as far as I can see she has no issues
With men. Pauley left her husband. Before,

Poor Jessica Savitch drowned. Other
Female anchors seem to suck up, or come on

Much too strong, talk wrong, don’t have
That raspy voice Diane has, driving my husband

Wild. He sees her, I know, for childish sex. To me
Sawyer has everything a female should have

In 2005: fame; money; looks; brains;
Power; guts; animus; all. I don’t know

Her score on wholeness or integration.
But as for TV, she’s A-1–for me.

- Timeslice: Houston Poetry 2005