Motive for Murder.

Motive for Murder.

                                                              Gatineau. Nov 25, 2007.


One day the pale hermit, whose burning eye,
Starvation fasts, and harshest penances
Were seen by all as marks of saintliness,
Forsook his grotto on the mountaintop
And built himself a cabin by the river.
The fact was duly noted by the watchers
To be reported in the usual way.

All intensity had quite abandoned him,
For now he seemed content to be himself.
He proved to be a quiet and peaceful neighbor
Who showed no trace of ego or ambition,
And had no message for the wider world
Except a gentle word for passers-by.

He did not struggle when they came for him,
Bundled him, hooded, into the dark car,
And took him through the village to the crossroads,
There to reduce him to something barely human
And leave him broken, sprawling in the ditch.
He did not die like a man, the peasants said,
Who would have been ashamed to scream the way
He did when the voltage was applied.

Did those in power discern some quality
Unsuspected by that small acquaintance
Who only now begin to feel his absence?
What did they sense? And what is that to me?


---------------------------------------------------------------

<billk.writing.com>