James Tian poem

 

The Thief

By   James Tian

A man with voyeuristic tendencies,

Together with a group of people—

Wearing hats labeled “Justice”,

Loudly point at a beautiful lady:

“We suspect that you’re a thief!”

At first, the lady doesn’t intend to respond,

But they block her path,

And try to spread to more people—

Claim that “she’s a thief”.

Unable to endure it any longer,

The lady opens her handbag,

And turns out her pockets.

They shake their heads:

“No, you could hide it in your clothes.”

Blushing, the lady takes off her coat.

They don’t even check it—

They simply keep shouting:

“You still have underwear…”

More people begin to join them,

And no one thinks there’s anything wrong with this.

At last, the lady removes all her underwear,

Exposing her body to the public.

Among them are sounds of people swallowing their saliva…

Yet some are still not satisfied.

One steps forward, trying to touch the lady’s private parts,

Saying: “You might still be hiding it here…”

The lady slaps the man across the face—

The sound is loud…

Only then do they begin to disperse.

Not because they’re frightened by the slap,

But because their eyes have already been sufficiently satisfied.

Filled with anger, the lady puts her clothes back on.

But a few days later,

She’s arrested by an official organization,

For the crime of “public indecency”,

Because someone says she was naked in public.

The lady gains a new anger:

The reward for proving she wasn’t a thief—

Is to be directly declared guilty!

The voyeuristic people continue to lead the charge,

Responsible for creating cracks.

“Justice” is like flies—

Whenever there’s a crack, they crawl in,

Unless the crack leads into magma…

James Tian