Fallacy

Fallacy

Angie Lo

The empty ones that beg and starve for trust; Who strive, who sit with hands and tongue restrained By copper wires; you, righteous, judge and say Their pain is but their sin, and so they must Confer the price. And so you strip away The copper from the widow’s last two cents And stretch the wires, to raise the punishment For wicked blood— then drain, until the sway Of anguished cries redeems your shallow ear, Then cries no more. When through this way the pains From them have been removed, and thus the tears And marks of the oppressed are turned to dust— You proudly turn your back on what remains, And satisfiedly say the world is just.