And Justice for All

I don’t believe in punishing a crime
and interdicting someone’s native bent.
I much prefer such people spend their time
among those heeding the same covenant.
Let everyone act out what he deems best
for others in the city where he lives.
There, each should likewise be at the behest
of what his neighbors warrant they can give
him. This way he has shaped the world he wants,
and can blame no one but himself for what
befalls him. For he’ll get the same response
from neighbors boasting mindsets that are cut
from like fabric. While getting equity,
he has no will nor way to trouble me.

For he’s too busy fending off the slew
of citizens who act upon the rules
that he set down by acting with a view
to his self-interest. Thus, he’s fostered tools
antagonists can use to trump what I
could not. And, since most people are benign,
I benefit from kindness of the guy
who heeds the moral law, as heartless swine
do not. So let them navigate a world
their deeds created so that every soul’s
a sovereign nation with their flag unfurled
to wage a battle for self-righteous goals.
What matter if their ends are right or wrong
if they are strong enough to get along.

Let everybody be the rule of law
that my society deems fit for me.
And let its ruthless citizens guffaw
when those who fall afoul of them must flee.
Let cunning men coopt the residence
they’re living in to mind what others do
in order to create a dissonance
that leads to consequences they will rue.
Let each one’s slanders gain the currency
that’s needed to usurp their civil rights,
until their social standing loses solvency
and they are threatened with impending fights
that taunt them like the sword of Damocles.
And may it taunt them with sadistic tease

while they await a trial that never comes
to close the psychic prison of their fears.
Let them implode when showcase liberals strum
a “one day!”: refrain in their hassled ears.
Thus, let all their peers become jury, judge
and executioner. Instead of trials
we bank upon today, let each one’s grudge,
complaints and slanders fill the DA’s files.
Have no defense attorney present to
rebut the charges that will quid pro quo
defendants to a living hell, their whole life through.
Let this be rule of law so they may know
how sharper than a serpent’s tooth it’ll get
to brook a menacing electorate.