The People Versus Me

The judge in her black
robe strode in,
the big cop said rise
and we rose.

She sat down and so did we.
The People Versus Me.

I'd already confessed
that I did it,
but they had to decide
if I planned it.

My lawyer's strategy
was that I shouldn't speak,
so I watched him and his enemy
reconstruct reality
with bored cops and botched geeks
telling tales about me
for a voyeur jury.

I was like a celebrity.
But the State was really the star.
It marched through its Method
and my flesh
hung at the end
of an equation.

I'd wait on a verdict.
I'd wait in a cell.
I'd wait for a chance
to feel like a man again
with sun on my skin by the sea.



.