Legal Notice Poem by Herbert Nehrlich

They sat there in their leather chairs,
adorned with robes of proud tradition
and nodded gravely, now and then.
Dishevelled stacks of paper here
and there and threatening to fall
onto the plush and royal Persian floor.
Charged with their citizens' affairs,
from murder down to common petty theft
black dress and faces talcum white,
the mood was somber in these halls but for
the days of Carnival late in November.
They'd banked his entry fee some time ago,
a hefty sum allowing caviar to be procured
for lazy lunches in the holy cellars.

A year had passed in ordinary fashion,
frayed nerves ignored and envelopes despatched,
submissions from the left and then, the right,
and sealed with oval rubber stamps and script.

There was an air of expectation in the early Spring,
a hearing would be held to ascertain
that justice would be seen as it appeared
and pax vobiscum gave the common man his due.

A beige manilla flyer, marked couvert, it left
these silent halls to find the bitter man
who had been wronged by his own blood
and who was waiting for a signal from his God.

The style impeccable, the words rang loud and clear,
his eyes went blurry as he sat there in his chair.
' Informal notice to you Sir, not a conviction,
this matter is, of course, outside our jurisdiction.'