Feature
by Norman Levine
When the
judge in a courtroom drama asks the defendant to rise
I get up from
the couch. This is what happens from taking on the world. There is much
to account for. Historians may well ask where were you, Citizen Levine,
when your country napalmed Viet Nam, overthrew Allende, invaded Iraq and
tortured prisoners.
It's bad enough that I swiped a deposit bottle from the back shed of a
candy store when I was twelve and then brought it in the front door for
the 2 cents. I also re-used an un-cancelled stamp once or twice and sneaked
into a second movie at a multiplex. It's been a life of crime, I admit.
For those of us with a conscience even these misdemeanors weigh heavily
and grow exponentially in the fecund soil of the unconscious. In my dreams
I most often find myself in the shoes of an escaped felon even if I forgot
what it is that I did. I'm tired of being the international drug lord,
serial killer and embezzler. I'm ready to turn myself in and confess to
every unsolved case on the police blotter.
This could be my shadow-self. That guy who has been following me behind
the newspaper on the subway, that goon holding up the lamppost across
the street at midnight. I could be that double-agent urban guerrilla who
forgot my assignment.
May I approach the bench, your honor? I ask that the jury disregard these
previous remarks. My client is given to delusions of depravity. If he
fell asleep in Star Wars-3 and woke up in Star Wars-5 it was unintentional.
As for his alleged crime at age twelve the records will show that he never
was twelve. He skipped from age eleven to thirteen. Further forensics
will reveal that it wasn't his DNA on those un-cancelled stamps. The defense
rests.
The prosecution asks the jury to consider the accused acts of omission
as well. In his near 83 years this country has gone off course and he
did nothing to stop the skid. When we recklessly allied ourselves with
corrupt scoundrels Mr. Levine merely whimpered in protest. Where was he
when we kicked the hornet's nest in the Middle East, engineered coups,
occupied sovereign states, assassinated with drones and violated the Geneva
Convention? The chronicle of History will show he tacitly endorsed these
nefarious acts by his vigorous inaction.
We, the jury, find the defendant shall be sentenced to another year of
guilt-ridden dreams. He shall be haunted by every cardboard box at the
off-ramp, be made to feel the sting of para-military police rage and the
toxic tongue of dangerous fools.
Norman Levine's latest book, AND FURTHERMORE, was published IN 2018 and
is available for $15 from Amazon.
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