Saturday, December 03, 2011

IN THIS STATE, CAPITAL REFERS TO LOSING YOUR HEAD

by Risa Denenberg

for Troy

When you were a child,

more than likely
at least once, maybe often
you were punished

for some misdeed

you didn’t do. You may have been guilty

of something,

but not what you were accused of.

And indeed, while you maintained that you were innocent of the crime,

you were made to feel guilty.
It’s like that, guilt mixed with blamelessness,

bafflement, the horrible injustice of it all

leading to loathing, or worse, blind surrender to power

and it stays with you

and marks all your laurels and fiascoes
from that moment.

Now imagine being at the rope end

of a judicial lynching,

swinging your integrity.


Risa Denenberg is an aging hippy currently living in Tacoma, WA. 
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