A Person By Law

Before the war, I was marched in shackles
into the market of sheep and cattle.
Freedoms won in the wound of a nation
then bestowed to a corporate invention?

My freedom was guaranteed by amendment—
those bastard lawyers twisted and rended.
Hand my rights to a faceless phantom,
a person by law, no soul for redemption.

No body to jail, no soul to save.

Before long we’ll see the end of the inventions.
Just remember the cost of your decisions.
We live among the greediest of persons,
unaccountable, invisible, and beyond rehabilitation.

There’s not enough room in any house of detention,
no trademarked mascot for a criminal defendant.
There’s no church who will hear their confession.
There are no prayers to win their salvation.

No body to jail, no soul to save.

Set out on the land
to spread their nets to spread their debts.
Not fishers of men, not men at all
persons by law
whose god is called To Sell Us All.

No body to jail, no soul to save.