“Mistrial”

A murderer was captured but was never brought to trial.
He never faced a jury of his peers.
He never was examined, there’s no psychiatric file.
His guilt has been assumed for all these years.
This travesty of justice is recorded in a book
More bought and sold than any in the land.
Last night when I was reading it I took a closer look,
And that’s when I began to understand.
His rights were never read to him, no lawyer was assigned,
No tests were done to see if he was sane.
Because it is quite clear to me that justice has been blind
I here present “The People Verses Cain.”
I’ll skip to my summation since the evidence is sparse
And there’s no need to take up so much time.
I’ll clearly show the case against my client is a farce
Which fails to make the motive fit the crime.
To take another human life, one’s brother none the less,
A great compelling motive must exist.
Our brothers get the best of us at times we all confess,
There must have been some reason that was missed.
So why do you suppose since it was clearly understood
That God is only pleased when blood is shed
If he was well informed of what to do and that he could—
That Cain brought fruits and vegetables instead?
The prosecution claims that Cain was lazy from his birth,
“A lazy man won’t sacrifice lamb.”
Yet anyone who digs and plows and cultivates the earth
Will see this “Lazy” argument’s a sham.
In answer to these questions it is time that I reveal
Just what it was that I believe occurred,
But first I have to warn you to beware of what you feel,
It’s not the simple story that you’ve heard.
Cain heard the dread commandment and he grabbed his deadly knife,
And found a little lamb out in the field.
Then slowly he approached it and prepared to take it’s life,
He grabbed it’s neck and raised his knife and kneeled.
But just before the moment passed he saw it’s little face,
It gently licked his fingers and it cooed,
This little baby lamb with all it’s tenderness and grace
That kissed him even though he’d been so rude.
Cain’s heart broke down within him and he let the creature go,
And dropped the deadly weapon by his side,
For everything he felt inside was loudly screaming “No”—
The man’s compassion could not be denied.
“It just can’t be,” he cried to God, “It’s far, far worse a sin
Than any sin that I could need atone,
To slaughter helpless innocents in front of all their kin,
Please God, please leave the little ones alone.”
Cain ran into the garden he had worked upon so long
And gathered all the crops that he could find.
“The fruit of all my labor offered up with joyful song
Must really be what God has got in mind.”
When Cain approached the altar he was stabbed right to the core
As what he saw unleashed a fatal sting.
His little lamb was slaughtered, all it’s blood across the floor,
And God was pleased with Abel’s offering.
This scene creates a motive, and the motive makes more sense,
The missing pieces fall in place and fit…
Cain tries to be a killer, finds his heart and then repents,
But finds to kill required by Holy Writ.
If Cain became a killer it was meant for him to be.
No other choice was offered from above.
But who or what he killed is what I’m asking you to see,
Should make no difference to a God of love.
Can you condemn my client if he acted in response
To entering that most traumatic scene?
If sacrifice and bloodshed are the things God really wants
Then Cain complied, his record should be clean.

John H. Bidwell