Monday 29 November 2010

Please Don’t Insult My Profession!


I have pretended to be even with you
Even as you call me “a defender of thieves and murderers”
I have smiled even as you joked that all lawyers will go to hell
Matter of fact, I have been seething, boiling within me

For apart from saying them
You have had to laugh sarcastically and held your sides
As if you had just revealed the most hidden truth to man
But I have been quiet.

Friend, for your sweeping statements
I have shared with them with pain
But had no nerve to counter you
All the while hoping that you will tone it down
But to no avail.

For seven years, friend
I have trawled through legal textbooks
Thumbed finest Judgments from Lord Denning to Madan
Sieved through Journals and articles
For this profession

I have read through Philosophy and Psychology
And various legal systems
Just for this profession

And in all this time, friend
I have captured themes of justice, of fairness,
Of rights known to men, of court structures
Of sentencing, of what underlies defence

For instance, friend, did you know that
I am the mouthpiece of my client but still an officer of court?
Did you know that if a man “kills” as you say,
I would want to aid the court to leave no doubt about the propriety of his actions?
Did you know that if the court finds him at fault I should
Be thanked for leaving no doubt as to my client’s guilt?

But I have chosen to keep quiet
For all this you will never understand—
After all it took me seven years to decipher them
All that I ask is to exercise restraint before firing your salvos

C) Lorot Salem 2010

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