The public stocks have not

gone away, not at all, no way!

They are not the wooden ones of

yesteryear in town centres for

all the passer-byes to come and

see the criminals on display.

 

Now they are of the digital kind,

splashed across screens to show

and shame the guilty ones and serve,

like before, as moral lesson for

all the citizens who might, who

would, consider entering this

path to darkness against the public

good that all those with the power

decide is what we must do and say.

 

Don’t be fooled’

 

The stocks are still open and on

display and we will know who among

us should be locked into their shame,

and castigated, humiliated, ready for

some pain to distract the naive ones

from the foolishness that’s really going on.

 

So bring your tomatoes and your eggs, and

ready your arm for the throw, and create

some curses suitable for those hapless souls

in the stocks the really deserve our scorn.

 

17/8/2021