Poety Stuff - Scales
On the day He was to create justiceGod got involved in making a dragonfly
And lost track of time
– Anne Carson
Justice is a woman
We clothe in folds of bronze or stone
Daughter of the Earth and Sky
When I was little I wanted everything
To be fair
My mother’s voice: life isn’t fair
I made a list of things lacking fairness
Wealth
Weather
War
Language
Love
Laughter
Beauty
Birth
Brothers
We stopped looking to God for justice
After Cain and Abel
After the Flood
After Sodom and Gomorrah
After forty years wandering in the desert
Or maybe after He killed His own son
That wasn’t really
The kind of justice
We had in mind
So we forged an idol based on older deities
Birthed before monotheism
And omnipotence were invented
Ma’at in Egypt
Themis in Greece
Justitia in Rome
Justice is a woman
We clothe in folds of bronze or stone
We give her a sword and some scales
To hold at arms length
The balancing kind
Because they look better
She doesn’t have shoes
And sometimes
There is a snake
We blindfold her
Not so things will be fair
But so she will not weep
At the things we do in her name
Drowning us
In her ancient tears
posted by Kiara at
10:25 PM
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