Illistration: Stewart Carlson
Poem: Shahin Shabanian
Tale of One City
On the shores of the Gotham City
Where the Wall Street plays dirty
And corporations cheat plenty;
On the taxes which they don’t pay
And the Tax Return they get everyday,
A black man selling cigarette singly
Gets attention from the law like a bank robbery
They encircle him like vultures abound,
For the sin of being black; selling cigarette without a bond
They deprive him from life on this land
By chocking him to death with their capable hands.
They said, “to sell a single cigarette, you don’t have a permit,
Therefore, your life is forfeit
For the taxes you must remit.”
But corporations are not chocked to death
On the taxes they evade
And penalties which are not paid
Poor people’s life is worth the tax on a cigarette
But the Wall Street gains thousand lives as it manipulates
You must be human to judge and to decide
Between a human life and a corrupt facade
Now I know why the poor would find,
For them, their rights are denied
But for the rich the laws are thrown aside
And this is the true meaning of the “Justice is Blind.”