Just Causes

Just Causes

the moral cause
of justice
demands punishment
for an innocently slain
cop

the moral cause
of justice
demands
the wrongly convicted
to be set
free

the morality 
the justness
and rightness
of the cause
and to which side
of the cell
it's being served
alters
our interpretations
of all facts and evidence
to twisted conclusions
like mirrors
in a funhouse

so when we ask
decades later
"what were the facts and evidence?"
the one
looking in the mirror
can say
"the reflection was fat"
while another 
can justifiably say
"the reflection was skinny"
making 
a good
just
and moral case
for either one
depending on
which side of the cell
the mirror
represents

the beauty
of all moral causes
is the equivalence
they give
to distortions
with the level-minded
arguing
"if we accept distortions
can't we at least accept
some are more severe
than others?"

but once
the distortions
have devoured all clarity
the argument
of false equivalence
like opening
pandora's box
to all the mystical
and metaphysical
then logic
don't 
matter
at all

it don't matter
so the detective
railroading the innocent
can rest well
knowing there's justice
for the slain cop
and knowing the evidence
good and bad and
without his realization
was conveniently
mercifully
distorted
by his justice
to fit
the moral cause

we can all rest well
under the blankets
of our moral causes
allowing the cause
itself
to do
most of the dirty work
of our conscience

there will never be
corruption
or shortcuts
taken
in the name of serving justice
there is only
the moral cause itself
that can fold
anything
and everything
into itself
and still be
morally just
by folding a bribe
into an incentive
and folding 
a criminal's
self-serving testimony
as true
since it's delivered
under oath
and true
necessarily anyway
since we know
the accused
is guilty
and justice
is being 
served