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The Legal Studies Forum
Volume 30, Number 1/2 (2006) reprinted by permission Legal Studies Forum Lawyers & Poets Law Amidst the Rest WARREN WOLFSON
_______________________ Eleventh Floor Lies This is a place where minor matters are decided. Here, on the eleventh floor of the courthouse, I conduct a reluctant venue for lawyers. Only small injustices occur. I demand explanations. Tardiness is unacceptable. The lawyers tell me lies about where they were and when they left. No one, certainly not I, believes the lies. If they were dropped on a scale they would barely press. Still, I accept the lies. We must get on with it. Cases are called and I decide them. Someone wins and someone loses. The number of people in the courtroom remains the same, but the faces change. The lies are lost, replaced by other lies. We pretend and we proceed. People leave with more or less of something. Decisions require words. At times I look up from papers, to the wall. On the wall I see: In God We Trust. [587]
Misplaced Blame A power failure blamed on a cat shutLet’s not blame the cat. He, if he was a he, had a right to find a warm, safe place to rest until dark. The cat did not know the white powder was dropped at the detective’s feet, or placed for finding on the car’s cold bright leather seat. The cat did not see what the worried witness saw— the hooded man running after firing the bullet that ended an unfulfilled life. The cat did not commit the stickups or burglaries or aggravated sexual assaults or any of the other ways men and women find to offend. The courts closed for a day. No trial, no prison term, no decision to kill a killer- a restful 24 hours. Then it all started again. [588]
Warren Wolfson has been an Illinois judge for thirty years, first on the Cook County Circuit Court, then on the Illinois Appellate Court. Aside from his duties as an appellate judge, he writes and teaches evidence law, but still manages to save time for poetry. His first published poems appeared in Rattle. "Eleventh Floor Lies" and "Misplaced Blame" were first published in Rattle. |
