Johnny
get your gun
There's a war on.
In mama Jo's plantation

Worry, attacked, like a thief, last night,
Creating urgency, confusion and tears,
she prayed to God for his prompt arrival,
Filled with angst, unable to calm her fears.
.
The roasted chicken was now cold and soggy,
He was expected at the apartment hours ago,
And yet he was being held without a valid reason,
Because the capricious bureaucrat just said so.
.
It all commenced with a collage of lights,
Red, blue, crimson, azure, again and again,
His adventure began without forewarning
with the appearance of an uninvited friend.
.
Unaware of any recklessness in his demeanor,
a respectable gentleman, he thought he was,
“ I did nothing to merit your company”
He told, proudly, to the man with a badge.
.
“My name is Johnny and I’m going home”,
he answered the question without hesitation,
“do I look stupid boy?, I just don’t believe you,
so hands up, I am now taking you to the station”.
.
“It sure looks to me that you are jaywalking,
possibly looking for ways to steal someone’s car,
but it will not happen on my watch, no sir,
tonight I will make sure that you’ll not go far”.
.
In this land of the free for the providential few,
the poor are accepted as society’s expendable pawn,
so even as he repeated, in vain, his plea of innocence
Johnny’s cards were low and his aces were gone.
.
There he was, together with twenty six strangers,
Unwillingly sharing a damp room for the night,
Some agitated and claiming their innocence
And some without any motivation left to fight.
.
Einstein was right when he wrote about relativity,
When time could determine the end to his plight
Seconds seemed like minutes longer than hours,
Tormented by a symphony of screams and cries.
A phone call was his reward for good behavior,
Thirty seconds to tell his wife he was alive,
He had been stopped and booked before eleven,
His wife told him it was already “eight O five”.
.
The public defendant called the arrest “abusive”,
A man’s fate was being decided in another room,
As the judge weighted the merits of his detention,
While he pleaded to a Camera to let him go soon.
.
He was released without any type of apology,
“There are no legal grounds for the detention,
so I am dismissing the charges, now you can go,
remember to vote (for myself) in the election.”
.
A man walked out of detention after sixteen hours,
confirming one more that we are governed by fools,
his belief in justice’s fairness is now shattered
As his faith in the system has lost its allure.
.
Hermestri

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3 line from last one = once
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This is long , boring and self-important. How can you call this poetry?
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"H", this reads almost like a short story with rhyme. It has some very strong lines in it such as "In this land of the free for the providential few, the poor are accepted as society’s expendable pawn" and can see the "image" that you are trying to show us, yet I feel that it drags a little at the end. Overall, I like it as a first draft.
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i hardly think that commenting about what is going on in -the ludicrously named- land of the free is "self important;" these times are appearing more and more to be our “brave new world” our “1984” while so are alarmed most seem more interested in shopping than justice.
i like the poem Hermestri,
raul.

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I agree with raul. This type of "incident" goes unnoticed by the great majority that chooses to look away. Good effort, Hermestri.
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Hermestri, yes you have crossed from poetry into polemics, but that does not mean that the message is not valid. i espescially liked "stanza" 7. But you need to decide: is this to be poetry or prose. At any rate, much to think about here, and thanks for reminding...m