I, the alleged culprit, have a case. I, the alleged captive criminal, deny these very words: this is a tirade against my own claim, my existence. Hold these words up to light, they will burn the page. A Machiavellian of moral poison, he holds my arm twisted behind my back. I know of no forthcoming parole. My one chance is to reach out and wrap his neck in confetti, then crawl out through the tail end of my own metamorphosis. Yet I hear the action: the poison arrow I drive into his heart may be my own first step to pushing up tulips on a grassy mound. We pay the toll as one. Drawbridge guards do not tax us as two. I, the alleged salient spirit, am the true wise one; I am reliable, moral, able to catch myself even before I am thrown. Used with the permission of Copper Canyon Press, P.O. Box 271, Port Townsend, WA 98368-0271, www.cc.press.org | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE HAPPY WANDERER by PERCY ADDLESHAW SUMMER'S JOE by PATRICK JOHN MCALISTER ANDERSON SKY WRITING by MARY FINETTE BARBER TO MISS ANNA MARIA TRAVERS. AN EPISTLE FROM SCOTLAND by CHARLOTTE BRERETON OCTOBER by ROBERT SEYMOUR BRIDGES THE FUNERAL OF A VILLAGE GIRL by JULIEN AUGUSTE PELAGE BRIZEUX |