he knew no jury
darken honest man’s future
with unjust verdict
When the charge of election bribery was brought against an Illinois senator, he replied, “I read the Bible and believe it from cover to cover”
When his accusers specified five hundred dollars of corruption money was paid in a St Louis hotel bathroom, his friends answered, “He is faithful to his wife and always kind to his children”
When he was ousted from the national senate and the doors of his bank were closed by government receivers and a grand jury indicted him, he took the vows of an old established church
When a jury acquitted him of guilt as a bank wrecker, following the testimony of prominent citizens that he was an honest man, he issued a statement to the public for the newspapers, proclaiming he knew beforehand no jury would darken the future of an honest man with an unjust verdict
Implications by as printed in Good morning, America, by Carl Sandburg, Harcourt Brace, New York, 1928.
Mr. Sandburg titled this poem, Implications.
The online Oxford Dictionary defines implications as “the conclusion that can be drawn from something although it is not explicitly stated.”
Mr. Sandburg published his poem, Implications, back in 1928.
I am startled not by the implications, the laundry list of wrongs or implied wrongs, that has been going on forever.
But that the Senator in question was backed and continued to be backed, regardless or in spite of evidence to the contrary, by ‘prominent citizens‘ and the Senator’s self assurance in his knowledge beforehand that the jury would be swayed by the testimony of the ‘prominent citizens.’
You could bet cash money this poem had been written yesterday, not 100 years ago.
Who needs social media?
Who needs influencers?
PS: 3 days out of the last 4, I have turned to Mr. Sandburg. If he were alive today, he wouldn’t stop throwing up.
No Haiku For You 