Mitigating circumstances always obtain
Whether mentioned in dispatches
Or idling in unknown country
In the schoolchild’s workbook from 1963
Me me me inscribed a hundred times
At random angles on random pages
In the dire life-history of the perpetrator
Convicted of domestic violence
In the perfectly healthy pine
That demolished the neighbor’s porch
In the data stored in files by the department
In the scribblings of the pompous drudge
Rewarded for gratuitous displays of erudition
Who kind of sucked in the outfield
In the maroon Toyota’s lacerated driver’s side
In the toddler’s refusal to nap
In the blackbirds who fly northward
On the final day of January
Their red chevrons bigger and brighter
Than ever before in the morning light

Render aid to the afflicted
Offer refuge to the oppressed