Manslaughter in The Highest of Degrees

Manslaughter in The Highest of Degrees

A Poem by Dog Paulson
"

Title is from Bob Dylan's "Percy's Song", But this is a true story.

"
Two cars, separate, the people inside would never meet outside of this,
A young woman, her name will not be spoken here.
She was reckless, but she didn’t intend cruelty.
She was trying to get home
Now in the second car, the girl and her mother were headed to a funeral, out of province
They never made it, and their family are now planning another.
You will not know the two who fell, but
An entire little town in Canada will remember where they once walked.
A sister, a daughter, at 21, now an orphan.
She will not recover.
The uninjured woman, her kids will not soon forget
What she was willing to do.
I am not saying to lock the woman away forever,
Maybe she wasn’t capable of murder,
Maybe she’d never hurt a fly,
Maybe she loves her kids, but today, she did not.
Do we forgive, and forget something like this?
I know her name,
And the orphan will forever know her name
But I will swear, to whatever god, to whatever I can find,
She may be forgiven, she may run
But this is more than her.
With any say,
I will never be stained,
With another human’s life.

© 2025 Dog Paulson


My Review

Would you like to review this Poem?
Login | Register




Share This
Email
Facebook
Twitter
Request Read Request
Add to Library My Library
Subscribe Subscribe


Stats

28 Views
Added on March 22, 2025
Last Updated on March 22, 2025
Tags: Bob Dylan, drunk driving, car accident, death, vent

Author

Dog Paulson
Dog Paulson

Alberta, Canada



About
I like Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Phil Ochs, and David Blue. I'm real tired of the world and there's nothin else to do more..