Joseph Pulitzer Poems

Silent Killer

Originally published in Out on a Limb, An Anthology for Friends June 2020


“There is not a crime, there is not a dodge, there is not a trick, there is not a swindle, there is not a vice which does not live by secrecy.”  - Joseph Pulitzer


There is something that few recognize,
But is transparent to many.
Kept in the dark and loyal to no one,
Hoping that nobody can find it.

It is a silent killer,
Swooping down on the smallest
Sense of innocence.
Give it an inch,
It goes a mile.

It is not an atomic bomb,
Nor the Bubonic Plague.
It is all in the slight notion
Of injustice.

~*~

“Injustice anywhere is a threat
To justice everywhere.
- Martin Luther King Jr.