Courtroom commerce.
A blindfold made of bills
is just a way to keep the light out
and the ledger in.
When the price of a "not guilty"
is higher than most can pay,
innocence becomes
a luxury item.
Sight is a surcharge.
When equity becomes equity,
the scales don't weigh evidence;
they weigh gold.
Justice is meant to be blind,
not bribed.
Once she takes a peek at the pocketbook,
the law is no longer a shield,
but a service.
The archives have been thrown open.
Every whispered word and dark transaction
is now a matter of record.
Truth has been dragged from the shadows,
naked and cold,
forced into the witness stand.
But the gavel never falls.
We are learning that transparency
is not accountability.
There is a law that governs the many,
stripping us bare for our transgressions,
and a separate, silent law
that covers the few.
While the truth stands shivering,
those who benefited most from the silence
remain polished, pressed, and perfectly insulated
by the very power they used to write the rules.
Nature gave us a skeleton;
we decided everything else was negotiable.
There is no "original" human state to return to,
because being human is the act of self-fabrication.
We traded the cave for the city
and the campfire for the smartphone,
but the huddle remains the same.
We aren't losing our nature;
we are merely updating the hardware.
We spend our lives collecting anchors
and wonder why we can’t fly.
To become "more" is often mistaken for an act of accumulation.
Growth isn’t about what you add to your inventory;
it’s about what you remove from your identity.
Lighten the load,
and the height takes care of itself.
If you are too busy counting the stones,
you will surely miss the mountain.
We must delegate the drudgery
to invite the divine.
Set the mill to turn itself,
then turn yourself toward the light.
After all, the infinite is a full-time job.
We are remarkably sentimental
about our original equipment.
We resist the new tool
because it feels like a replacement,
when in fact,
it is a revelation.
To fear the "artificial" lens
is to choose a familiar fog
over an alien sharpness.
Stop defending the defect
and start celebrating the resolution.
He who stands atop
the mountain of his enemies
should check his silhouette.
We celebrate the defeat of the "monster,"
forgetting that triumph is the ultimate catalyst for ego.
It’s a short walk from a hero’s parade
to a tyrant’s throne,
and the transformation is usually silent.
