Unjust Infamy

By Rhiannonw

Tue, 20 Jun 2017
  • 800 reads
2 comments
 

He came so near to fame
– his name was tossed about,
fair game
for those who sought in vain
someone to quickly blame
and shame
for fault that brought great pain
and maim so grim
to limb,
chose him, victim of whim
to clinch
conviction fast,
lynch,
cast
angry fire
to vent their ire,
but

just in time
the truth arose,
the fire froze –

so,
who then got blame
and shame, came
to notorious fame
for all the malice,
slanderous game
to prematurely name,
accuse, abuse,
one innocent of ruse,
who’d not committed sloth’s refusal
to take care,
– no guilt of shirking
safety,
no shoddy working –
so who the infamy now should bear?

[This week's IP: ‘A Brush With Fame]

 

 

Certificate U
Poem
Miscellaneous
Philosophy
Inspiration Point (work that responds to our weekly writing cue)

Comments

Submitted by jeand on

Hi Rhiannon

I thought of Bill Cosby when I read this. I was so hoping he would be cleared of the charges against him. He was such an important role model in his early days.

I liked the meter and word usage in this.

Jean

Jean Day

Submitted by Rhiannonw on

Hi, Jean, Thanks, we so easily are aghast at real improper trials and hasty lynchings of the past, but nowadays, 'throwing stones' and accusations is so easy, and even when accusations are correct, there seems little humble awareness of ones' own faults, and also of understanding the particular temptations of a particular era, where attitudes got very slack (that is not excusing wrongdoing, but people may look back and wonder why our society ignored, excused and encouraged certain things, and lashed out at some for speaking truly). And that applies too, to some decisions over safety in the past, where ignorance rather than greed were sometime to blame (sometimes ignorance of things that have only been learnt much later since that time), and again, how sure are we of our own strength to stand against temptations of greed and peer pressure.

Rhiannon