A Poem by Richard Fein

SUI JURIS

How can a trilobite be rebuked for wallowing in sand

or the scorpion scorned for its first deadly sting.
How can a hungry Velociraptor fall from grace
for pouncing on a fledgling Apatosaurus?
And how can the newly emerged butterfly
be blessed for merely being a butterfly
or the debutante doe for its graceful gait
or the dawn bird for its sunrise song?
Which creature could be condemned or exalted
when none could call their creator by name
or even knew such a miracle had a name.
A heaven of one, a hell of none, and a soulless earth,
that bored judge of judges presided over an empty court,
twiddling thumbs till they were callused.
But finally the soul evolved within human flesh,
and the apple was chomped to rinds and pits,
Then the nameless one called out his own name
which the wayward twosome overheard─
and thus became sui juris.
At last, a time to don black robes and pound the gavel.
Finally the first stern sentences were meted out
to defendant Adam and defendant Eve.
But soon after the caseload exploded,
with dockets full of pleading sinners
who also called out the name, Yaweh
with ear-numbing persistence.
And Yaweh also pined for what was lost,
those idyllic days of doodling clouds on a blue sky canvas,
and the Eden he and that first human pair
with half-learned knowledge and freshman arrogance threw away.

Richard Fein was a finalist in The 2004 New York Center for Book Arts Chapbook Competition

A Chapbook of his poems was published by Parallel Press, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

He has been published in many web and print journals such as: Reed, Southern Review, Roanoke Review, Skyline Magazine, Birmingham Poetry Review, Mississippi Review, Paris/atlantic, Canadian Dimension and many others