Sentimental Judgement
There were so many unspeakable crimes,
this one came during a nation’s hard times,
it was 1962,
when racial tension grew,
and humanity was tagged,
riot headlines were grabbed,
an elderly black couple were gagged,
and then repeatedly stabbed,
and left on the living room floor,
blood stained the walls,
and the lower part of the front door,
two killers, their girlfriends made house calls,
they returned to the house time and again,
to step over the bodies
and carry off another armful of valuables,
they worked it like a third shift,
their sanity would drift,
and their hate was unconditional,
but humanity was governed by the traditional,
sentimental judgement that while men
might violate the law,
by killing each other,
the murder of a woman constituted real tragedy,
it wasn’t like killing a brother,
it was more like murdering a mother.
© 2011 Frank Atanacio