Commandment 6

The poet is a Quaker and as such is opposed to the death penalty. In this poem from 2009, he expresses his view of the hypocrisy of the death penalty.

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It's what I do,

he said,

I pull the trigger

now they're dead.

I'm a bad man

doing what you expect of me.

It's what we do,

we said,

we flip the switch

now he's dead.

we're society

caught up in our own hypocrisy.

William F. DeVault. all rights reserved.