They stamped my first breath in a ledger of ash, A red little passport, a match in the stash. The clerk at the window had ink on his thumb; He said, "You're the weather. You're the sum." Skip the brass ballot— "You left them the keys." Mark one small circle— "You marched with the thieves." The courtroom's a carousel, verdicts on loan; Each horse wears my face, each bell says: your own. Guilty by birthplace, guilty by page, A candle condemned for the shape of its cage. I stand in the aisle while the rafters convene— If I speak, I'm the knife; if I hush, I'm the chain. The verdict is written, the gavel's a ruse: The house writes the charge, then it hands me the noose. At the town's cracked fountain, the fish learned to drown; A bronze horse kept pacing the map of the town. The old books said kingdoms are built out of dust— But the dust has a surname, and in dust we trust. "Silence," they tell me, "is how tyrants grow." "Your mark," they tell me, "means you wanted the blow." Two doors in the corridor, both painted red; One opens on blame, one opens on dread. Guilty by birthplace, guilty by page, A candle condemned for the shape of its cage. I stand in the aisle while the rafters convene— If I speak, I'm the knife; if I hush, I'm the chain. The verdict is written, the gavel's a ruse: The house writes the charge, then it hands me the noose. "Who made the wolf?" asks the shepherd in court. The witness is missing; the truth is remote. I brought no crown, no decree— Just a name on a paper that outlived me. Mark me in. Mark me out. Same red seal. Same old doubt. A ballot's a blade. A blank is a blade. The judge is the mirror. The sentence is made. Guilty by birthplace, guilty by page, A candle condemned for the shape of its cage. The pews hold their breath, the town wears its crown— The verdict stands tall, the sentence comes down. The verdict is written, the gavel's a ruse: The house writes the charge, then it hands me the noose. The clerk shuts the ledger. The ink keeps my name. The doors swing both ways. The verdict's the same.
