Squaretable Seminars

Good and Evil were at recess, so while Justice
was eating lunch at the corner café,
I picked up her blindfold from the jury box
and tightened its objectivity about my eyes.

I held her double-edged sword in my right hand,
dangled the chain of scales from my left,
and stepped into the regal pose of the law
I had seen her take on many an occasion.

How embarrassing her complacent gaze
when the blindfold fell off,
the way the scales clanged to the floor
and the sword razed my calf
filling my nostrils with the red sting of iron.


© Hannah Walleser