façades
false fronts
a sleek black silk tie unadorned
by
either insignia or design sprawled doubled
up on itself like a snake and laid at the middle
of a patched paved alleyway running
behind a row of bungalows that were once
happy homes in a neighborhood
and now had been repurposed to
house attorneys their partnerships and Privilege
he stood over it
and
turned it with the toe of his shoe as one might poke a dead animal crushed in the
street
a morbid curiosity
although in his head it arose like a distant aroma
that
maybe
he held out that just
maybe
it belonged to a lawyer
twisted
one too many times by the cavalier system he abetted and by which he lived
or who may have been cheated yet again
by cohorts or clients
and
said --
Fuck it
yanking out its slick length through his buttondown collar around his neck
Im done
Ive had it
Done with
the mean shystering the
manipulation strategies and
plotting
the Xaminations and
crossXaminations
Done spinning intricate webs to snare and capture
a witnesss slight error or petty lie and
then inflate it suggesting possibly that they were
untrue in regards to other
matters and testimony perhaps perilous matters
slivers of doubt
Done not representing what was true or right or
wrong bucking morality having the
ethereal
Art of Negotiation
Im done
the possibility enticed him
the slippery black silk on the toe
of his shoe
it really did
but trying the scenario on
for size
he balked
privately confessed to himself
the only way he could approve of a
fine soiled tie was if
it was thrown up into a
tree
over a stout branch and a hangmans
was knotted around the neck of a black faced
bulging eyed asphyxiated attorney
who hung from it
Someone please come and take down this miserable façade
1640, Monday,
17 11. 14
2253, Day-Between-Two-Ts, 19 11.
14
