Tuesday, March 4, 2014

5132. SECRET WORDS

SECRET WORDS
(the jury room)
We are barely there.
They've got nothing better really
to do. Drink the juice that is flowing;
make the noises that come. The room
is filled with jagged people swooning.
-
In the barrister-room where decisions are
made, they sometimes talk of the 'shadow
of a doubt'  -  the place where 'beyond a'
is most said to count. As I see it, one
either did something, or did not.
-
The constable stands idly by  -  were a fight
to break out, or an escape, perhaps he'd try
to help; stop; preclude the consequences.
One's either guilty, or one is not. All this, 
it is said, beyond a shadow of doubt.
-
Should be. Could be. Either way,
we are barely there and the case
is now totally abstract.

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