Lewis Maltby

Mr. P.D.

In the halls of justice, justice is in the halls

Knight errant in a cheap suit

butt-sniffing the black robed gargoyle

perched upon the bench

a bad actor

pretending to believe

the blue perjury parade

defendants plead “not guilty”

as if it mattered,

not in on the joke

I serve him up easy one,

kid caught hot-wiring a car,

first offense

He slams it into the upper deck,

11 months in Holmesburg

(didn’t he get the memo?)

Suddenly a sorcerer,

I conjure missing files

and unavailable witnesses with dazzling ease,

the tide of perjury turning

until the clock runs out

Just another punch-card day in the justice factory

floors slippery with invisible blood

Lew Maltby is a civil rights attorney from Princeton, New Jersey. His first chapbook Smiling Axes was published by Kelsey Press in 2019. "Mr. P.D." is based upon his experience as a public defender in Philadelphia, trying to protect poor and working class people (mostly African American) from the destruction of the criminal justice system. These efforts led to him being briefly incarcerated for contempt of court.