JURY DUTY

the DA and the defense attorney went out to dinner ... all evening they spoke to each other in paragraphs ... the judge dined alone ... he thought in sentences and each one was either true or false ... but most of all throughout the city were the witnesses ... each of them sees what he sees and remembers what he remembers ... they define things simply and simple definitions have the joy of morning about them ... not infrequently a new word moves into the neighborhood and ripples of laughter echo down the streets in gratitude and welcome ... the long weekend over the people return to court ... witnesses the attorneys the judge and the jury go in their separate doors ... most of these are open to the witnesses and that's where most of the people go because they want to tell what they've seen before they forget it ... tell it so that they remember it ... and what a mess of the system they would make without the lawyers and the judge to pin them down ... one testimony being just a word long and having nothing to do with any other ... no wonder serving on the jury is a thing the people do not want to do ... we know discernment is so hard