Citizen

Citizen

 

 

 

 

I lay talking on his couch, once a week

in the reflection of a mirror

 

I could see the contents of his private study

his collection of art objects

 

plates, vases, statuettes in inspired pose

that sort of thing.  It all seemed to point

 

to a well-ordered mind

discerning, eminently sane

 

and he was interested, or pretended to be

in my own inner struggle

 

yet I couldn’t help ask (myself)

from where those objects had come

by what inner compulsion

what sum of innocents put to the sword

 

to obtain these dispossessions

this loot.  And I doubted he or I knew the answer

 

so with a shiver at my unfeeling heart

I denounced him to the authorities

because the sword of the law hovers over its enemies

and unless you do everything for virtue

 

you have done nothing.