i am gathering up a jury of dead things;
some you killed and
some that died to make room for you.
those dead things, they lie cold and speak—
every ghost rises up to testify against you.
but i won’t hear the voices of the standing dead—
i reject the testimony from the grave,
i deny the boundtotruth witnessing of bones.
i believe only the assessments of living things
biased fallible selfish distracted
they stand breathing, warm and inferior,
without complete access to the information
measuring out an opinion without knowing
What Happened;
delivering, alive, a frail and rosy verdict.
only the dead speak the truth,
but much too quiet,
and much too late.
i
breathe
and
breathe
and
clear you of all charges.
Author bio:
Stapleton Nash is a graduate of McGill University, where she studied English Literature. She currently lives just outside of Taipei, where she teaches English. She writes in her spare time.
Photo by Travis Grossen on Unsplash