The speaker is paying quiet, alert attention. Being "present as a wren" suggests someone small, watchful, and tuned in, with an ear cocked toward "the scandal of another goddamn day." That curse word shows weariness: the news, or the world's noise, keeps arriving and keeps being outrageous.
The second stanza turns wry. The "book of war" is "excellent reading," which sounds almost like a casual book recommendation, and that clash is unsettling. Reading about conflict can feel safe and even enjoyable from a distance. The speaker then names what the book is really about: "our quest to be unquiet." It's a pointed phrase, as if people actively seek out turmoil rather than just suffer it.
The mood is tired, ironic, and uneasy. The poem sets the small, attentive wren against humanity's appetite for conflict, and it leaves the speaker caught between listening and wishing for calm.