The tiny town center,
awash with reporters
live-tweeting the news:
Jerry Sandusky,
guilty on 45 charges.
As the cheer rises
I can hear it from here,
wrapping my heart like
a balm, my old community
embracing the children.
Brave children, men now.
Strong for all of us who
were not strong for you.
We are all complicit--
All of us are responsible.
Now we must make amends.
Fireblossom asked the Real Toads to write a poem featuring a famous person, and I chose someone who is now infamous.
I lived and practiced as a new lawyer for three years in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the site of Jerry Sandusky's criminal trial. Like for most people, the gravity of his actions has overwhelmed me. I wrote this poem earlier, when Joe Paterno died:
untitled 1/25/12