The free shamble aimlessly
the prisoners are bored between arraignments
- there's not enough coffee for the magistrate
to speed up his decision on fates
- justice pleasantly dispensed
with an eye toward future leisure.
Truth is a friend
before the pleadings
- to harmonize versions of events
is divine - but at trial
truth disappears
behind the adversarial veil.
The locust tree
- invisible to those outside
- but all that there is
to those behind
steel windows.
