JURY DUTY

Sixty years too late     I slump over ancient oak furniture, pebble-smoothed by generations of        sweating palms, in dingy, white-bricked basement, jury holding area, Dedham Court,  High St.,  1987. Dressed in tie and jacket disguise,       I stare through barred windows,           listen for your footsteps overhead. Oh,  Nick and Bart, I would save you!       Speeding down Rt. 1,  past Dedham Mall,  past Toys R Us,  past Levitz forever furniture sale, hairpin turn into parking lot, vault through Toyota window,        bolt into courthouse,  wait my turn, barely, pacing fighter, straining    for bell, for intercom, for chalk-screech voice of court officer, or     menacing, painted, pointing fingernail. Up the stairs I fly! Throw open the doors of injustice! Demand instant impanelment of myself!  (Or would I be chosen by chance:  dungarees, beard             unnoticed?) And then, then, oh wonderful then: Lone hold-out! Hung jury! Beatific smile!  
as Judge Thayer sputters,                                               foams--                                                                    helpless,           eyes bullseyes                                          of rage. *  *    * On green peeling wall,       only xerox clipping remembers: "60 YEARS AGO--SACCO AND VANZETTI--NO ONE SEEMS TO CARE"                                (8/24/87) *  *     * It would have been so easy:         I would have done it for you,                                      happily,     right upstairs,                       where they only took your lives, but too many red lights,       too much history in the way. Dedham Court where Sacco & Vanzetti were convicted Dedham, Mass. October 19, 1987

All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
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