Wilda Morris

VANDALS

What if the police had found out
we were the children
who trashed the old car,
luxuriating in sounds
of glass shattering,
rocks bouncing off metal?

Would they have understood
we thought it was junk,
abandoned in the field?

Would the detective have looked
at us and thought we looked
like good kids, sent us home
with a warning? Or would he
have filed charges, taken us to court?

Would the judge have sent us
to Juvenile Hall for several months
or years? Would we have come out
hardened, hopeless?

Where would we be now?


Sarah Stockton reads "Vandals":



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Wilda confesses: "For many years, I carried a sense of guilt for having participating in an act of vandalism and lying about it. We really thought the vehicle we trashed had been abandoned. I first wrote about it in my book, Stop the Violence. I seriously ponder the question the poem raises."

WILDA MORRIS's official rap sheet shows one traffic violation. She takes the Fifth Amendment regarding other possible infractions of the law. Her book, Stop the Violence: Educating Ourselves to Protect Our Youth, was published by Judson Press. Her poetry appears in numerous print and online venues, including Frogpond, About Place Journal, After Hours, and The Avocet. Wilda Morris’s Poetry Challenge at http://wildamorris.blogspot.com provides a monthly poetry contest for other poets.