Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This week's poet is Kathryn Lazzara.
Lazzara has been writing poetry since she was a teenager. She was a member of the Elburn Writers Group and is now a member of the Aurora Poetry and Prose Group. Here's her poem "Traffic Court."
Unfair, unfair, unfair you cry
as you sign upon the line,
So, to the halls of justice go
at the appointed time.
You wait and wait and wait your turn,
before you parades the throng,
You jump right up when your name is called
to right the unjust wrong.
There he is, your nemesis;
the one who wouldn’t listen.
And now he quotes the Great God Radar
in his righteous holy mission.
“I swear,” you wail, “It wasn’t so,
the machine must be beguiled,
by some other car that looked like mine,
or perhaps I was profiled.”
The judge who sits upon the bench
looks down at you, expounding
“Your case for innocence intrigues,
your excuses, heart-felt sounding.
But all the things that you have said,
we’ve heard them all before.
and none of them will change the fact
that your speed was high once more.
Guilty you are of lead in your foot,
and here’s your justly fine.
Now pay the clerk and just be glad
your license is not now mine.”
So, after all is said and done,
you pay and leave and smolder,
Poorer, perhaps wiser (or not),
But surely a whole day older.
