Aug 2016
With the printer's art Congress declares to reward
All citizens who watch all citizens of a certain sort
For they are said to be in the shadows of our land
Plotting terror of the most terrible sort,
To maim our babies’ precious limbs,
To spur our fear of the Other’s ambitious will.
So I have you, don’t you see,
Because your piety is suspicious to me.
Deceptively, maliciously I say you act
And call for the reward the law says you’re worth.
Oh yes, you will do. Money in the till.
Praise the law and my virtuous will.
With the charges pressed by me,
Have no doubt to trail you will go.
How proud I will be to see you stand
Before your peers sitting there in fear.
Stranger, admit I have you on the run.
Pay my price, or face my ambiguous will.
© 2016
All citizens who watch all citizens of a certain sort
For they are said to be in the shadows of our land
Plotting terror of the most terrible sort,
To maim our babies’ precious limbs,
To spur our fear of the Other’s ambitious will.
So I have you, don’t you see,
Because your piety is suspicious to me.
Deceptively, maliciously I say you act
And call for the reward the law says you’re worth.
Oh yes, you will do. Money in the till.
Praise the law and my virtuous will.
With the charges pressed by me,
Have no doubt to trail you will go.
How proud I will be to see you stand
Before your peers sitting there in fear.
Stranger, admit I have you on the run.
Pay my price, or face my ambiguous will.
© 2016
Not entirely far-fetched: several states have proposed such a program albeit without the reward. To assume a reward would never be added to such programs is to underestimate the power of political pandering.
