It Isn't Just Wicked Chickens Who Lay Deviled Eggs
The price of corruption
is plain to see —
it hinders you; it hinders me.
What profane deeds we did are done
— they don't blind or bind anyone.
Our sullied souls — base and vile
stood up to scrutiny only awhile,
then fell to shameful depths,
while those who loved us wept.
Tainted stains — perverted, sordid;
even the best of us fail, contorted
with felonious feats — yours and mine.
Isn't it time we turned this around —
loose the devils to which we are bound,
choose honest, principled, upright and noble.
By Annette Gagliardi
Published in Poems of Hope and Reassurance by Lina Belar, 2021.
Included on the Poetry Walk at Green Island, January 2021.