Poem - Not Killing The Vile

Governor Jay Inslee on the phone with Attorney General Eric Holder
(Image by GovInslee)   Details   DMCA

I rise today,
In praise.
Our governor
Has made a stand.

He halts the threat
Of Execution
Held o'er the heads
Of inmates, his.

He cannot know,
He says,
The truth of fairness
In cases, these.

I've heard a man
Who suffered, great
By an act, he knows
The inmate took.

Well, I don't know
But that matters, not.
For my mind is held
By an idea greater.

I am a citizen
Of the State - Washington.
Like the Governor,
The inmate, and the man.

And I lay claim
That when the state acts,
It does so in my name,
And in my stead.

So, an execution
Is such an act,
And my hand is there
In complicity, in kind.

But I want it not.
I wish not to kill.
Let me tell
A tale:

I might,
Like that man.
If my child
Were slain...

Raise my hand to slay
The guilty man.
End his life.
Rid the world of him.

But I would hope
That the state could do
This boon for me:
Stay my hand, for me.

I would hope
That the state
Would save me
The future I'd have had.

Filled with the guilt
That, from slaughter, flows.
Beset with some loss
For my act, however fair.