tracking cases

 

tracking cases

 

 

a Harvard law degree

lives in a run-down tenement 

on lonely NYC backstreet

 

his clients panhandle for not-guilty verdicts

no parents, to speak of,

attend the proceedings,

they are home with their needles,

hers, the sewing kind

his, the track-mark kind

 

she wills him dead,

no hearing,

no summation

she wants free

 

a Harvard law degree

does pro-bono 

work on the corner

of his conscience and their survival...

 

the arm swells

documents on the table

find veins

as City Trials deliberate on

lives

 

there are few shade trees

on the corner

of his world,

 

but his eyes seek the sun

hoping it will burn hot enough to obliterate

his eyes, 

so he can Oedipus his next case,

 

and imagine that woman successfully

quilted her wish

into fruition,

 

won't become his next client.

 

 

erin-cilberto

7/30/17

Reviews

[James]

I've got the picture of that woman in my head now, Jacob. There's little justice in our justice system; verdicts are bought and sold and the victims and families pay the real price.

Great poem.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, James.
j.

[Strider Marcus Jones]

work on the corner
of his conscience and their survival...

This poem is a brilliant, insightful picture of what we have become as a civilization that is eating itself from within. Struggle and survival, while the elite look down like gods from Mount Olympus and move us around like pawns for profit and their own bored amusement. Excellent poem Jacob.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your kind review, Marcus...
j.

[Papaya]

i do wonder if justice is fair sometimes. it's supposed to be but there's a blurred line.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

yes, a definite blurred line..
thank you, Ana.
j.

[Jimmy Yetts]

Is there anything more futile than hopeless hope?
The only thing worse than living in man-made hell is feeling compelled to work there, constantly aghast at the suffering; having grown up in a much milder hell.
Devastating piece, Jacob!--exposing exquisite pain born of profound desperation.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your profound reply, Jimmy...

j.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

This appears to have a tinge of goodness and of sadness about life. It appears the lawyer tries to assist the poor but watching their lives takes its toll.
It felt rather bleak Jacob.

[jacob erin-cilberto]

thank you for your words, John.
j.