I read the news today, oh boy
the last rattling screeds
thinner than a gadget catalogue
their headline was ‘where’s the justice’
‘condemn the villain’
And for all these years
They all knew and said nothing.
Knew and did nothing
Knew and watched it continue.

Who gets to tell the story
when the mouth that opens
speaks with the voice of
money and power and the rest is chosen
silence.

Death doesn’t move them
Harm doesn’t move them
Pity does not persuade
Mercy does not illuminate
And the bystanders cash their paycheck
Serve the oppressor in silence
For benefit
For advantage

In that replacement silence
Not an accusation
A framing of the victims
For surely they deserved it
Otherwise we would have spoken up?
Surely? Surely? Us people of good conscience?

We have known and we said nothing.
We have known, and we did
Nothing.

And what replaced our action?
More of the same.
The river overflowed its banks
and we watched as it swept a town
called Decency away.
A torrent of cash,
our ‘usefulness’ to a king.
And we are viler than a jester
not even fit for the stocks
Or public confrontation

 We’ll wait until the dead pile up
Or the king loses his crown
And there underneath it we will claim to find our
Courage
Instead, this weak mocking thing
This wretched, mute object that relinquished
The very human nature of choice.