by Dana Yost
Where i grew up,
there was an old man
in a long black coat
and a derby hat.
He slumped, slouched
along streets and
hallways. A church warden,
but not a creep,
though, There to make
sure we kids did the right
thing—that we acted
with decency, respect,
that we cared about
the small town where
we lived. A role model,
if dressed a bit weirdly.
Now, i read about a judge
making threats against
little boys—threatening
to ruin their lives,
to split them from families,
to ship them to countries
where they know no one,
where it’s possible
they will be trafficked
or killed. It’s true.
I’ve read the courthouse
transcripts. This time,
creep is the right word.
I think about the class
I took my freshman
year in college: a study
of the Nazi regime,
the guts of it,
how men became
desensitiezed to the plight
of others, how the lives
of others became
as disposable as my
mother’s empty lighter.
Have we slid into
that sort of nation,
letting judges tell
kids they have the power
to destroy them?
The old man in the long
coat of my childhood
would gather
children, give them
shovels and hoes,
have them clean
a patch of weedy
sidewalk, scrape bird
shit off the side of the church.
We’d know it was the right
thing to do: to make the place
look better, because
it was our home.
He spoke gently to us,
but he’d take this judge
in Texas by the throat,
push him to his knees
and say, here,
pull the weeds from the cracks
of the sidewalk, leave
the children alone.
Is that true?
or is it what I want
to be true?
Let’s say it’s both,
Let’s say there is still
some adult who cares
about morality,
the moral high ground
in this country of fast money
and power-grubbers,
and if that sounds
preachy, then I guess
it does. His name
was Buck Klein
it was it was
it was. Maybe I’ll
drive to Texas
and start a spray-painting
campaign on the bridges
and roads and sides
of courthouses:
Buck Klein lives,
he does, he does,
and judges who do not
know this should
lose their jobs,
should be sentenced
to 40 days on a playground,
learning to care
what becomes
of the children.
Dana Yost is a former daily newspaper editor and writer. He has had 10 books published since 2008 and is a three-time Pushcart nominee. He lives in Sioux Falls, S.D., trying to stay blue in a very red state.
