Angel (Notevember 2023, #16)

Presumed innocence is a tricky thing
What value to halo and wings
If entirely imagined?
All image, optics, pageant
Harmlessness on full display
Lest someone point and say:
“There’s the culprit!”
So you make your appearance a pulpit
Preaching without a word
That any accusation would be absurd
Merely look, and you will know
But I have looked, and it’s all for show
More fool those who believe
That they, alone, won’t be deceived
By set decoration and fancy props
Lured into thinking the illusion stops
When the curtains close
Is it too on the nose
To quote “All the world’s a stage”?
When in this day and age
Everyone makes their own spotlight
And though, in fairness, I’m not bright
Enough to do a proper investigation
There’s ample information
Regarding cases studied previously
To prove just how deviously
You and your toxic lot
Pretend to be something you’re not
How you do your dirty deeds
Popping up like weeds
To lure those with more eagerness than sense
You will not find me so dense
As to be tricked by your cloak of pristine white
You expect my bark to be followed by bite?
There’s a far better method, I’ve found:
I need only stomp you into the ground
And when you lay broken on the earth
We shall see what a fake halo and wings are worth.