Innocent, As Charged
who gets what
has become a matter
of value
of potential
you may be worth protecting
but not worth saving
<>
you may innocent
but that’s no guarantee
you won’t be prosecuted
your alibi may be solid
but once it is questioned
it becomes a proof of your guilt
<>
you may be guilty
but directing blame
can get you off the hook
you can cast suspicion
on the innocent
for even thinking you are guilty
while you wash blood off your hands
<>
if your value is greater
you deserve the protection
while the innocent are worthless
blameless
disposable
sacrificed
The first verse of this piece was written about five years ago when I was working my way through the Rules as prompts. But this dichotomy of who deserves protection hasn’t changed since then. The limits of that protection are consistently tested by the likes of Trump (money, not law, protects him from the law), even in Ontario there is a tug-of-war going on over education priorities & control.
Someone said something to the effect that the exploited have no rights, only mercy – that laws are made to allow the merciful to find more devious ways of control & when the exploited realize this, as they often do, they are legislated into being grateful for any justice that might accidentally occur. It seems that those billionaires forget that without the working poor their financial empires would crumble. If there was no profit in keeping the poor poor, poverty would end. Or be made illegal – lock’em up & funnel that welfare money into the penal system.
I am grateful for what entitlement I may have as an older white cismale. I don’t have to worry about being arrested for bringing in a package delivered to my front steps while I was out. But know as I get older, with my limited financial resources me options will get smaller but I don’t lose sleep over that, nor am I obsessed with justice – one of the many things one can become so focused on futility takes over.
These are thoughts that drift through as I talk about these old poems. One of the keys to meditation is to let thoughts drift without trying to impose order on them- denying those thoughts doesn’t allow them to drift. Focusing only on those thoughts stops blocks the ability to see beauty. Besides I’m not that complicated.
TOpoet 