David X Novak
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Versts from the Truth

4/15/2017

 

Twixt Gorsuch and Raskolnikov
    Which is the better man?
A literary question, luv,
    Just do the best you can.

“Raskolnikov, a murderer,
    And who knows what compelled him?
Some devil or—if you prefer— 
    Malignant spirit held him.

“Gorsuch, however, what compelled
    A man to take an office
Hypocrisy unparallelled
    Provided and his trough is?

“The prize was stolen for his sake
    Because he could deliver
Partisan verdicts—no mistake,
    Although it sends a shiver.

“Raskolnikov, who dropped the axe,
    Or watched it as it fell,
Owned the attacks, and was not lax
    Admitting it was hell.

“The other, Gorsuch, in cahoots
    With a condign cabal,
A judge smote justice at the roots
    Through means unethical.

“Which is the better, which the worse?
    Let me endeavor an
Equivocation—heaven curse
    Or bless as heaven can.

“It does not fall to man to judge,
    To say which crime more heinous,
To each man’s conscience his own smudge,
    Revulsion intravenous.

“Raskolnikov is fiction made,
    Yet Gorsuch is not real,
Whole-cloth the lie that he portrayed,
    A feint to let him steal.”

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