POETIC JUSTICE: THE WRIT

A writ of habeas corpus is a court order addressed to a prison official (or other custodian) ordering that a prisoner be brought before the court for determination of whether that person is serving a lawful sentence and/or whether he or she should be released from custody. The writ of habeas corpus in common law countries is an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.

And it is that Habeas corpus can also mean
That an imprisoning authority of an alleged murderer
‘Should have the body'! Yes! Should have the body
To prove there’s been any such murder at all!

You should have the bodies stacked up high,
Above your neck the fallen amassed and towering
Toward the gray-thrown sky where their faces
Look alive once more with the sobbing of battle.

You should have the tortured hands and backs
Bear them to the cavern of your limbless,
Eyeless scourge as the conqueror’s honor;
The due reverence to your lifeless carnival.

You should have the trembling youth’s red echo
Of anguish knocking against your ear in sleep;
A mud-spattered lullaby, and have the beautiful,
Trodden and gashed bodies of the children dancing.

And, as you writhe, you twist the writ to sunders
And pledge no support for our grown-dim reality
While shadowy plans are pinched for a fresh war
Lying eastward of quagmires steeped in freedom!

Downward, downward, missiles bury the blameless
And stoke the soil with a lover’s enthusiasm
Like murderers and thieves leaving their mark
Upon every body gasping beneath the enemy.

U.S. Constitution - Article 1 Section 9