Justice Was Lost in Central Park

Beaten, coerced 

into confessions 

Confessions that did not, 

could not, 

match the reality 

Justice didn’t waste time 

as the city 

called for vengeance 

She found five 

easy targets upon whom 

to direct the city’s wrath 

Oh, Justice has a cane 

but it is not 

because she is blind 

Her cane has 

other purposes 

With strong, swift blows, 

Justice took a swing 

at five innocent boys 

When the last strike had landed, 

the innocence of childhood 

was smashed into pieces, 

their hope for the future 

locked tightly behind bars 

Bars that would 

hold them and scar them 

for six to fourteen years 

Justice, celebrating 

the job she had done 

providing five perfect scapegoats, 

contentedly patted her own back 

It took the attacker himself, 

more than a decade later, 

to set the record straight 

Innocence was never recaptured, 

years were never returned, 

the harm could not be undone 

If only Justice had bothered 

putting down her cane 

and opening her eyes 

in 1989 

Written November 29, 2019