Poetry

Find someone tender, fragile, or true —

Maybe a truth-teller, maybe a few.

Bonus points if they fight for another's despair,

They twirl best when the weight's unfair.

"You're too honest for your own good," they'll say,

"Truth shines bright — until it burns away.

The world's unkind to the ones who won't bow,

To those who can't bend, or don't know how."

Translation: compliance is how you survive,

Integrity's costly — it won't keep you alive.

The best dancers? The JDs & the corporate kind,

Masters of loopholes, rehearsed and refined.

Each step calculated, each turn well-planned,

While the vulnerable reach for justice's hand —

Ever hopeful, reaching through the abyss,

But justice, they say, was never invited to this.

Invite the vulnerable — dress them in dreams,

Watch how they stumble through legal schemes.

Overdressed in ideals, underdressed for the floor,

While "equal protection" hangs by the door.

The Constitution? A dance card, old and torn,

A promise worn thin, a tradition forlorn.

Permit a victory — rare and small,

One case to prove there's hope for all.

The press will call it progress, the system will say "proof,"

The vulnerable will still dance amidst this fractured truth.

When justice falters, the phalanx grins,

The music swells, the cycle begins.

The curtain falls, applause rings sweet,

The waltz repeats its practiced beat.

Same partners, same tempo, same deceit —

And the carpet still hums with the echoing feet.

But a dream, though trampled & deferred, still rises — refusing defeat.