A poem a day for 2013 - day 346 - Your honor

I have this horrid truth about the sixteen year old white boy
Ethan Couch
Who stole liquor from Walmart
Who killed four on June 15
Youth pastor, Brian Jennings, 41
Mother and daughter Hollie, 52 and Shelby Boyles, 21
Breanna Mitchell, 24

Say their names out loud
Crack your jaws at the consonants
Slit your lips on the vowels
Scream to the gods for justice
To God for understanding

Ethan Couch
Ethan Couch
California
My state
My home

Remember his name
He may be president one day
He may own a local network one day
And he will be more known for that than that he
Injured others
Was three times the legal limit of alcohol
Had Valium in his system
Was driving thirty miles above the speed limit
Was sentenced to probation

He had seven passengers in the Ford F-350 he drove
Where was a sixteen year old boy going with seven others
Lord lead me not into the temptation to judge
Four were tossed
Two critically injured
One still paralyzed who communicates by blinking his eyes

Where is the outcry from the Zimmerman supporters
Who criminalized the dead body of Trayvon
Where is FOX news
Why is this not still news

Why has he been driving since he was thirteen
What happened at fifteen when he was caught with a
Passed out naked fourteen year old girl in a truck

My heart bleeds for everyone

Ten years probation
Judge Jean Boyd
Judge Jean Boyd
Probation
Say probation with your whole mouth
See if it makes sense to you
Probation

Because this young man
This boy
This human being
This baby was never disciplined
By his parents
He does not know what it is like to be punished
He is rich after all
And who had time for that

Who had time for instruction and conversation
Who had time for the word no
What lawyer would fix his mouth for such defense
His did
His did
What judge would buy being affluent as a disease
His did
Ours did
Yours did
Your American judge did

Tell me again about America
About these United States
Tell me again about railroad tracks
And the other side of town
Tell me about the Mason Dixon
Tell me all about truth and forefathers
Speak to me again about standing still during the pledge of allegiance
With my hand across my heart
Say it again
So I can hear