Sunday, May 3, 2015

The Scapegoat





That Bromine mineral stench of yours

That you carry like a sacrifice on the edge of the cliffs

That you scour day after day

To the bewonderment of ill-comprehending

Witnesses who watch aghast waiting for a hoof to slip

Yet you stride in your high heels

Defying gravity

Carrying your goat skin and white fur

To a land where the most spectacular views

Are yours



Somehow in biblical times

During Yom Kippur two of you were chosen

One was sacrificed and the other

Laden with society's sins

Was let go






We know you so well because you are

The scapegoat!

That noble creature is blamed for getting away!

Are there not others who can dish the blame?

Surely the CIA was blamed in Iraq

Bush, Cheney and George Tenet discussing Iraq

Oliver North took the blame over the Iran Contra affair
The Senate committee shot him with a barrage of questions
Yet North, in his decorated uniform
Held up just fine




Bullies are always blamed from A to Z
In literature and films a fall guy is a must
In the Maltese Falcon
A tangled plot delivers a fake statuette
And who is to blame?





But if you fall too easy that makes you a Patsy

And we know that goats, goats don't fall!


Mountain goats licking salt deposits on the wall of an Italian dam


Today, 2000 years after being named a scapegoat

You have discovered the pommel horse




With inherent talent you straddle and show flares before dismounting the olympic apparatus

You show extension and lines like Kristian Berki

The judges give you soaring scores

Finally, there is nothing to run from

Nobody to blame






The judges are unanimous: with such grace not even a sheep can compete! 



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