"Village Lawyer" by Pieter Brueghel the Younger‘Milking the System’ and Other Poetry by C.B. Anderson The Society September 22, 2022 Beauty, Culture, Humor, Poetry 18 Comments . Milking the System We waited, we have waited, and we wait. Delays continue to increase the cost Of doing business. Every magistrate Can understand the hours and dollars lost But yet cannot, according to the Law, Provide a satisfying remedy. It doesn’t matter what they really saw, Or how reliable their memory, When witnesses without a leg to stand on Are all you have with which to make your case. It’s good to spring surprises you have planned on, If only to recoup and save some face; But better still, if those you fight in court Are more inept at hiding crimes than you Are—that’s just how it goes these days. A tort Is not a piece of cake, but people sue Each other for the flimsiest of causes Because the penalty for doing so is nil No matter what the letter of the Law says About the merits of the case. An ill Wind blows across the land, a noxious breeze That works no good for anyone except Rapacious lawyers who collect their fees From plaintiffs and defendants less adept At feasting on the System. Win or lose, They come out winners in a legal game With rules they feel entitled to abuse As they see fit, pursuant to a name Embossed in gold. If I were in their shoes … I must admit, I’d likely do the same. . . September As the summer slows down to a crawl, When the apples are nearly in season __At the threshold of fall, __It’s foreseeable then __That a rush of unreason Will arise from endorphin-rich brains Of indigenous women and men __Who applaud when it rains. In the meadows they’d mown only once, Where the forbs and perennial grasses __Are the groundwork of hunts __Yet to come, there’s no doubt __All the lads and their lasses Are ecstatic and ready to roll In unharvested hayfields, without __Any aim or control— Though a seasoned partaker might say That composure and caution don’t matter: __At the end of the day, __Whatsoever was planned, __There’s a wind that shall scatter The most carefully husbanded seed Far abroad on this bounteous land, __Irrespective of creed. So lie down in the glistening dew And behold the near reaches of Glory, __For the limitless blue __Is a channel whereby __The continuing story Of affairs that have often recurred Is transported direct from the sky __On the wings of a bird. There are times when the will may forget What the conscience must later remember, __But the deepest regret __Is the failure to live __To the full. It’s September, And October’s no less an event Where there’s nothing for God to forgive __And no need to repent. First published in Blue Unicorn (2014) . . C.B. Anderson was the longtime gardener for the PBS television series, The Victory Garden. Hundreds of his poems have appeared in scores of print and electronic journals out of North America, Great Britain, Ireland, Austria, Australia and India. His collection, Mortal Soup and the Blue Yonder was published in 2013 by White Violet Press. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. CODEC Stories:Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window) 18 Responses Roy E. Peterson September 22, 2022 C.B. I am particularly drawn to “Milking the System.” The number of victims is unconscionable and incalculable as attorneys continue to escalate unconstitutionally procured evidence and scourge the judicial system. The sentence, “Win or lose, They come out winners in a legal game With rules they feel entitled to abuse As they see fit, pursuant to a name Embossed in gold,” is especially compelling. We have seen the abuse at the highest levels, and I am taking aim directly at the Department of Justice. Reply C.B. Anderson September 22, 2022 Hell, Roy, it’s a funny grim world we live in. Only by watching some of the better lawyer shows on tv can one retain any trust or confidence in the System. Reply Joseph S. Salemi September 22, 2022 What an amazingly intricate rhyme scheme and meter in “September”! I make out ABACBDCD for the former; as for the latter, each stanza has two trimeter lines, three dimeter lines, two trimeter lines, and then a concluding dimeter. Also, the rhymes in line 3 of every stanza are feminine. “Milking the System” hits one with the absolute force of what it says: Law, as practiced now in the United States, is a tangled web of lies, shyster tricks, bluster, and corruption. I have a friend involved in litigation who for seven years has been bled dry financially by the sheer evasion, postponement, meaningless depositions and motions, and simple harassment by the lawyers of a very rich New York county. We need tort reform and a curtailment of pointless, predatory litigation. But will it happen? No, not at all. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are the party of lawyers, and will do nothing to upset them. Reply C.B. Anderson September 22, 2022 Alas, Joseph, everything you write about the Legal System is true. And if you can pile up enough anecdotal evidence, then you’ve got yourself a trend. As for the structure of “September”, I got the idea from the Australian poet Stephen Edgar. He is the absolute master of composing complicated nonce stanzaic forms replicated throughout the poem. Anyone interested in this sort of thing should find a way to read some of Edgar’s poems immediately. He might just be the best formalist poet writing in English today. Reply Cynthia Erlandson September 22, 2022 “Milking the System” is well-phrased wisdom (and you must have grinned when you rhymed causes with Law says)! “September” is quite remarkable for its wonderful consistency in both its rhyme scheme and its meters, which vary in number within the stanzas, yet are arranged in the same pattern from stanza to stanza. Reply C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Yes, Cynthia, I grinned plenty when I wrote the first poem. Repeating nonce stanzas faithfully is always a good idea, lest one fall into an unstructured heterometric collage. Reply Russel Winick September 22, 2022 “Milking the System” hits home, since I often saw litigation rules and procedures serve to delay or avoid justice. And the political “fixes” were typically a bad joke. Take “mandatory arbitration.” If Party A screwed Party B out of $100K, most of the arbitrators I appeared before could not care less about justice meaning Party B should get $100K from Party A. Instead, their calculus was what number would virtually force both sides to settle, given the costs and delays inherent in continuing to litigate. So a $50K settlement, for instance, would make the arbitrators feel proud of themselves, and the politicians would use such settlement statistics to show how great they were at “improving” the system. Always unmentioned is the small fact that Party A got away with half of the screw job, and Party B got only half of what s/he deserved. No justice at all. C.B. has done a fine job of portraying this issue. Reply C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Yeah, Russel, you know more about it than I do. And I can only imagine what persons of integrity must go through while practicing in this profession. Reply Brian Yapko September 22, 2022 Both amazing poems, C.B. Your “September” poem is full of gorgeous phrases, especially “But the deepest regret is the failure to live to the full.” This poem has a fascinating structure well-analyzed by Dr. Salemi. What I note about this structure is the way it forces the reader to slow down and even stop in places. That serves the contemplative theme of this poem well, especially calling attention to lines like “when the will may forget/What the conscience must later remember.” What can I say about “Milking the System”? It’s a great poem which zeroes in like a laser-beam on how lousy the system of litigation is in our country (not that I really know much about whether other countries are superior.) The scenario described by Mr. Winick is certainly one I can attest to and the horror that Dr. Salemi describes also seems way too familiar to me. Yes, a surfeit of lawyers are on the rapacious side and deeply-invested in gamesmanship, delays (albeit only if its advantageous), overbilling, and a variety of other practices that are despicable. But it’s a mistake to blame only the lawyers. It starts with Constitutional provisions which create entire bureaucracies concerned with things like bankruptcy, appellate practice, criminal procedure, property rights, eminent domain. Then the plumbing gets even more mucked up with rules of criminal procedure, rules of civil procedure, rules of evidence, rules for discovery, rules for the calculation of damages, committee-written jury instructions, and the list of laws, rules and procedures that have to be followed, all of which are justifiable in an ideological sense but the net result of which is to impede the administration of justice. And this is only the tip of the iceberg as politics and obstacles and rights and concerns about jury fairness and overtaxed budgets create a system so titanically overwrought and entrenched and impossible to navigate as to render the idea of true Justice well-nigh impossible. Blame the lawyers (there’s a reason why I refuse to do litigation after having been tortured by it for 30 years.) But also blame the judges, the politicians, the drafters of the Constitution, no shortage of lying clients and witnesses with agendas, not to mention everyone who has been involved in creating and advancing the Common Law going back to Henry II. And on the issue of personally witnessed injustices — I could write a book. You rightly identify tort law as one of the worst. However, family law is even worse. Dealing with broken bones is a lot easier than dealing with broken hearts, betrayal, child custody lies (he molested the children!) etc. Litigation represents people at their rock bottom worst and family law litigation even lower than that. Reply C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 For certain, Brian, there is plenty of blame to go around, not least of which is that a majority, or at least a large plurality, of legislators are attorneys. Please see my response to Joseph Salemi in regard to Stephen Edgar. Reply Stephen Dickey September 22, 2022 The mastery of fitting “colloquial” sounding rhymes as in Each other for the flimsiest of causes Because the penalty for doing so is nil No matter what the letter of the Law says About the merits of the case. An ill into such sophisticated argument is humbling and something to behold. Reply C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 I can say this, Stephen: It’s easy to lose one’s way amidst the intricacies of the interplay of word sounds and the argument. In such a maze it is crucial to keep a firm grip on the thread. Reply David Watt September 23, 2022 C.B., I could see the influence of Stephen Edgar in ‘September’, but also your own skillful conversational style. Although this piece has a complicated structure, the consistent stanzas tie it together beautifully. Reply C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Well thank you, David, but where would I be if I had been unable to “tie” things together? Reply David Watt September 24, 2022 I can’t recall any of your poems ever being loosely constructed, even with a complex form. Paul Freeman September 23, 2022 In ‘Milking the System’, you’ve pointed out some great failings in today’s society. A few years ago, I returned to the UK and was shocked by all the ‘if you’ve been in an accident…’ type TV ads from law firms touting for (creating) business for themselves. I was equally shocked by my step-niece asking my mum, “‘ow many compos (settled compensation claims) ‘ave you ‘ad’?” To which my mum said ‘none’ and totally flummoxed my step-niece. What a world! And thanks for bringing September in a temperate climate to life, CB. Reply C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Sometimes you Brits are more American than we are. I don’t have a step-niece, only granddaughters, so I don’t know much about that. I’m glad, if I read you right, that I brought September alive for you, but the temperate climate in which I live always boasts a pleasant, if not spectacular, September. Reply Paul Freeman October 3, 2022 Living in a desert, a poem like ‘September’ is always a joy. Leave a Reply to C.B. Anderson Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Captcha loading...In order to pass the CAPTCHA please enable JavaScript. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy E. Peterson September 22, 2022 C.B. I am particularly drawn to “Milking the System.” The number of victims is unconscionable and incalculable as attorneys continue to escalate unconstitutionally procured evidence and scourge the judicial system. The sentence, “Win or lose, They come out winners in a legal game With rules they feel entitled to abuse As they see fit, pursuant to a name Embossed in gold,” is especially compelling. We have seen the abuse at the highest levels, and I am taking aim directly at the Department of Justice. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 22, 2022 Hell, Roy, it’s a funny grim world we live in. Only by watching some of the better lawyer shows on tv can one retain any trust or confidence in the System. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi September 22, 2022 What an amazingly intricate rhyme scheme and meter in “September”! I make out ABACBDCD for the former; as for the latter, each stanza has two trimeter lines, three dimeter lines, two trimeter lines, and then a concluding dimeter. Also, the rhymes in line 3 of every stanza are feminine. “Milking the System” hits one with the absolute force of what it says: Law, as practiced now in the United States, is a tangled web of lies, shyster tricks, bluster, and corruption. I have a friend involved in litigation who for seven years has been bled dry financially by the sheer evasion, postponement, meaningless depositions and motions, and simple harassment by the lawyers of a very rich New York county. We need tort reform and a curtailment of pointless, predatory litigation. But will it happen? No, not at all. Both the Democrats and the Republicans are the party of lawyers, and will do nothing to upset them. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 22, 2022 Alas, Joseph, everything you write about the Legal System is true. And if you can pile up enough anecdotal evidence, then you’ve got yourself a trend. As for the structure of “September”, I got the idea from the Australian poet Stephen Edgar. He is the absolute master of composing complicated nonce stanzaic forms replicated throughout the poem. Anyone interested in this sort of thing should find a way to read some of Edgar’s poems immediately. He might just be the best formalist poet writing in English today. Reply
Cynthia Erlandson September 22, 2022 “Milking the System” is well-phrased wisdom (and you must have grinned when you rhymed causes with Law says)! “September” is quite remarkable for its wonderful consistency in both its rhyme scheme and its meters, which vary in number within the stanzas, yet are arranged in the same pattern from stanza to stanza. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Yes, Cynthia, I grinned plenty when I wrote the first poem. Repeating nonce stanzas faithfully is always a good idea, lest one fall into an unstructured heterometric collage. Reply
Russel Winick September 22, 2022 “Milking the System” hits home, since I often saw litigation rules and procedures serve to delay or avoid justice. And the political “fixes” were typically a bad joke. Take “mandatory arbitration.” If Party A screwed Party B out of $100K, most of the arbitrators I appeared before could not care less about justice meaning Party B should get $100K from Party A. Instead, their calculus was what number would virtually force both sides to settle, given the costs and delays inherent in continuing to litigate. So a $50K settlement, for instance, would make the arbitrators feel proud of themselves, and the politicians would use such settlement statistics to show how great they were at “improving” the system. Always unmentioned is the small fact that Party A got away with half of the screw job, and Party B got only half of what s/he deserved. No justice at all. C.B. has done a fine job of portraying this issue. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Yeah, Russel, you know more about it than I do. And I can only imagine what persons of integrity must go through while practicing in this profession. Reply
Brian Yapko September 22, 2022 Both amazing poems, C.B. Your “September” poem is full of gorgeous phrases, especially “But the deepest regret is the failure to live to the full.” This poem has a fascinating structure well-analyzed by Dr. Salemi. What I note about this structure is the way it forces the reader to slow down and even stop in places. That serves the contemplative theme of this poem well, especially calling attention to lines like “when the will may forget/What the conscience must later remember.” What can I say about “Milking the System”? It’s a great poem which zeroes in like a laser-beam on how lousy the system of litigation is in our country (not that I really know much about whether other countries are superior.) The scenario described by Mr. Winick is certainly one I can attest to and the horror that Dr. Salemi describes also seems way too familiar to me. Yes, a surfeit of lawyers are on the rapacious side and deeply-invested in gamesmanship, delays (albeit only if its advantageous), overbilling, and a variety of other practices that are despicable. But it’s a mistake to blame only the lawyers. It starts with Constitutional provisions which create entire bureaucracies concerned with things like bankruptcy, appellate practice, criminal procedure, property rights, eminent domain. Then the plumbing gets even more mucked up with rules of criminal procedure, rules of civil procedure, rules of evidence, rules for discovery, rules for the calculation of damages, committee-written jury instructions, and the list of laws, rules and procedures that have to be followed, all of which are justifiable in an ideological sense but the net result of which is to impede the administration of justice. And this is only the tip of the iceberg as politics and obstacles and rights and concerns about jury fairness and overtaxed budgets create a system so titanically overwrought and entrenched and impossible to navigate as to render the idea of true Justice well-nigh impossible. Blame the lawyers (there’s a reason why I refuse to do litigation after having been tortured by it for 30 years.) But also blame the judges, the politicians, the drafters of the Constitution, no shortage of lying clients and witnesses with agendas, not to mention everyone who has been involved in creating and advancing the Common Law going back to Henry II. And on the issue of personally witnessed injustices — I could write a book. You rightly identify tort law as one of the worst. However, family law is even worse. Dealing with broken bones is a lot easier than dealing with broken hearts, betrayal, child custody lies (he molested the children!) etc. Litigation represents people at their rock bottom worst and family law litigation even lower than that. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 For certain, Brian, there is plenty of blame to go around, not least of which is that a majority, or at least a large plurality, of legislators are attorneys. Please see my response to Joseph Salemi in regard to Stephen Edgar. Reply
Stephen Dickey September 22, 2022 The mastery of fitting “colloquial” sounding rhymes as in Each other for the flimsiest of causes Because the penalty for doing so is nil No matter what the letter of the Law says About the merits of the case. An ill into such sophisticated argument is humbling and something to behold. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 I can say this, Stephen: It’s easy to lose one’s way amidst the intricacies of the interplay of word sounds and the argument. In such a maze it is crucial to keep a firm grip on the thread. Reply
David Watt September 23, 2022 C.B., I could see the influence of Stephen Edgar in ‘September’, but also your own skillful conversational style. Although this piece has a complicated structure, the consistent stanzas tie it together beautifully. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Well thank you, David, but where would I be if I had been unable to “tie” things together? Reply
David Watt September 24, 2022 I can’t recall any of your poems ever being loosely constructed, even with a complex form.
Paul Freeman September 23, 2022 In ‘Milking the System’, you’ve pointed out some great failings in today’s society. A few years ago, I returned to the UK and was shocked by all the ‘if you’ve been in an accident…’ type TV ads from law firms touting for (creating) business for themselves. I was equally shocked by my step-niece asking my mum, “‘ow many compos (settled compensation claims) ‘ave you ‘ad’?” To which my mum said ‘none’ and totally flummoxed my step-niece. What a world! And thanks for bringing September in a temperate climate to life, CB. Reply
C.B. Anderson September 23, 2022 Sometimes you Brits are more American than we are. I don’t have a step-niece, only granddaughters, so I don’t know much about that. I’m glad, if I read you right, that I brought September alive for you, but the temperate climate in which I live always boasts a pleasant, if not spectacular, September. Reply
