Have we any moral standing?
The luscious lion
That roams and rules the jungle—
He derives his mane and might
From many of his fights
To protect his region and legion.
When he now dines and wines carcasses
With hyenas and vultures,
His pride is lost and his nobility crushed.
Have we any moral standing?
Even though Law may wrap and wreathe us
With unquestionable locus standi
To sail and tail and trail all legal oceans,
If in spite of our constant betrayal
Of (gospel) truth,
Of (prestigious) calling,
Of (envious) nobility
And of the deafening cries of innocence
That would not stop calling out for help,
We cannot shift our grounds a little
And call a spade a spade,
Then we deserve not to stand before God and Man.
Have we any moral standing?
Though Equity,
In its constant gentlemanliness,
May enliven us with crystals of remedies
(Where Law has stopped breathing)
To continue our advocatus diabolism,
And still stand deceitfully
Before God and before His Lordship,
Parading our sold selves
As Ministers in the Temple of Justice,
If at the eleventh hour of our soul redemption
We still default in undoing our unholy connivance
With the judges and with the clients,
Then we are mere pawns— hawkers and sellers of justice
At the detriment of our professional integrity.
Have we any moral standing…
To speak against the convict that was hanged
Or the rapist that was pranged
Or the robber that was fanged
Or the corrupt politician that was banged
Or the accused whose crimes boomeranged,
When we are the makers and finishers
Of crimes and of criminals—
We build a wall of mountains around the guilty,
And for legal techniques and technicalities,
We allow murderers roam our roads freely
And rapists, our routes freely
And robbers, our paths freely
And pedophiles, our streets freely?
Have we any moral standing…
To criticize or crucify
Our constantly failing governments,
Who because of personal gains and rains
Have unleashed upon us protracted diabolic reigns—
When the corruption and immoral eruption
Within our rather crumbling profession
Continues to hit the scary zenith?
One by one…
The terracotta bricks in our Professional House
Drops and breaks, they drop and break—
We make them drop and break.
By the time bend to gather the shattered pieces,
We may have lost not only…..
Our locus standi and moral standing
But also our face and our profession.
–Bolaji Ramos, Esq.
Copyrighted