{"id":588,"date":"2017-12-07T18:12:13","date_gmt":"2017-12-07T23:12:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nlg.org\/guild-notes\/?post_type=article&p=588"},"modified":"2017-12-08T17:06:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-08T22:06:21","slug":"ode-to-the-guild","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.nlg.org\/guild-notes\/article\/ode-to-the-guild\/","title":{"rendered":"ode to the guild"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following is a poem by one of the Homrich 9, client of NLG Michigan and Detroit Chapter. Read more about the case here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Jim Perkison, Homrich 9 defendant<\/strong><\/p>\n

now comes the legal crew in the city stew
\nof bending the strait to an imperial plot
\nshenanigans royal, emergencies gubernatorial
\ndefecation mayoral, desiccation neo-liberal
\nand it all flows down mimicking the creature
\ngoing round even when enslaved in a sound-bite
\npolicy, the nine waxing conspiratorial after the ten
\nhad been inspirational, with the guild
\nbreathing heavy in the hall on recess, cooking up
\nduress as defense against the offense of charges
\nfor praying too loud, pouring water too proud
\non the driveway, uncowed by the blue-suit crowd
\nor a high-heeled chief counseling bowing to fear
\nbaxter leering from the police van rear, steering
\nbullies to a court they thought to avoid, the rest
\nof the bunch plastic-wrapped and humming
\non the bench at the mound, and even that was found
\nin contempt, like a sound of jazz or a diss rap of old
\nfrom under the shroud of a body laid in a coffin
\nafter crucifixion like a continuation of civil infraction
\nin the form of wanton insurrections of vibration
\ndaring to contest the flatulent inebriation of power
\nunder a badge
\nall of this falling in the lap of the guild of aiders and abettors
\nto assess, finesse, redress under the gaze of a whole congress
\nof district court gowns and frowns and smiles in the
\ncontorted face of a city of attorneys seeking their pound of flesh
\nriding the circuit like preachers pretending to pronounce
\nlessons in the ears of don\u2019t \u201chath-a-way\u201d out magistrates
\nwho retired in the mix and apparently went crazy, and
\nback again to the maze of district court conniptions and
\ncorrections and data-delirious dungeons where the case
\nwould still be laired if the lawyers hadn\u2019t dared air a word
\notherwise and we found a new round of solicitation for a
\nstiff-collared, better-be-saluting-and bowing presentation
\nof our best wardrobe confections and attention-standing
\ncontrition before a judge demanding submission to
\nblackboard instructions and abstentions from surprise
\nor laughter and then once again the nights of banter and
\nplanning, divining and opining and regaling and fine-
\n3-buck-chuck-wining and nacho-chip-dining, seeking to mine
\nour best decipherment of the signs of the times in the dock
\nbefore the bench, still loving monkey wrenches and hunches
\nof workable strategies in the labyrinth of law department
\nsilliness clowned up as serious business in desecration
\nof the people\u2019s real interest.
\nhuh!
\nand now looking back on the whole uproar of contention
\nso much suspension of belief about jurisprudential function
\nin service of justice, the pace yet yielded moments of
\nlawyerly grace worthy of faith like an evangelical conviction!
\nnow comes john royal, for instance, in pigeon-toed resistance
\nshoulder-hunched and bobbing against the air-punches of walker and
\nmullins, frontin\u2019 hollowell, jones-day and duggan insistence,
\njohn in retort tongues-speaking cases like a baptist on a mission
\nquoting the bible like a pentecostal under holy-ghost unction
\n(almost like a kellermann in clean-shaven disguise!)
\nas if the dock was a pulpit and the jury getting\u2019 high on his reprise
\nand then we got little nick on the side, poppin\u2019 and lockin\u2019 with
\nresearch and replies, running circles around the district
\nwearing ties as thin as the charges themselves, allison weighing in
\nfrom murder trials and high-crime files, sobering the assessment
\nwith wonderment that we\u2019d so far escaped a felony bid,
\nand lee waxing ironic and razor, mcguire down the hall and lockhart
\nin the breech, shaun early on and sean at the end, ashley for a minute
\nand deb on call, chicago rick cutting it thick and keeping me
\nout of hoc when the judge went rabid on leaving the state, a passel
\nof beagles legalin\u2019 it out in the office, goodman hovering and
\nthen hurwitz angling in for the kill, an argument like a storm
\nin the gulf, raining down points like drops piling up like a flood even
\na judge with a grudge couldn\u2019t survive, and so here we are now,
\nready to cut a rug, toss back a mug, let oranges be oranges and not
\nthe color of the day, and even get to watch marian school bill
\nif the beat heats and mr. old knees and hearing aids
\ndares get out on the floor!
\nbiding fair before miller and garrett, to get
\ngrounds for duress spaded up and ferreted out in spite of
\nprosecutorial babble and thorns, then
\nwhat could be better than to end the trial in a pile of food and
\na vial of vodka, guffawing at the spectacle
\nand riling up for the next battle?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following is a poem by one of the Homrich 9, client of NLG Michigan and Detroit Chapter. Read more about the case here. By Jim Perkison, Homrich 9 defendant now comes the legal crew in the city stew of bending the strait to an imperial plot shenanigans royal, emergencies gubernatorial defecation mayoral, desiccation neo-liberal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"issuem_issue":[146],"issuem_issue_categories":[],"issuem_issue_tags":[116,148],"class_list":["post-588","article","type-article","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","issuem_issue-guild-notes-vol-42-no-4-winter-2017","issuem_issue_tags-nlg-detroit-and-michigan-chapter","issuem_issue_tags-poetry","post"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t