David X Novak
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The Pardoner-in-Chief

7/24/2017

 

He wants to offer clemency,
    A pardon to confer
To every guilty party: he
    As the Great Pardoner
Will pardon himself in advance
    For foul deeds yet to do:
Let anyone who looks askance
    Beware what might ensue.

How long before a murder gets
    Reprieve because the victim
Had crossed his path? The despot hits
    At those whose acts afflict him,
Although it be but questioning
    To understand the truth:
A man who wants to be the king
    Has little use for ruth.

Ruthless he acts and ruthless fells
    Whatever blocks his path,
Scarcely concerned for little else
    Within the aftermath
Beyond his petty preservation— 
    For so the despot rules— 
Of person, though a wounded nation
    Leaks blood in flowing pools.

His person before principle,
    Self-preservation king,
No deed too reprehensible
    Or vile for him to bring
To execution, foul fruition,
    Unmitigated act,
Which conscience stunted by attrition
    Cares little to retract.

You see the tyranny in force:
    Alas, the will of men
Makes trouble into something worse
    That will not finish then,
Impossible to rectify,
    Recover or redeem,
The former spirit, dead thereby,
    But remnant of a dream.


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