Public-domain source text

Contempt of Court

by Ambrose Bierce

From Standard Ebooks · standardebooks/ambrose-bierce_poetry

So, Juror Simpson, you got drunk And was a holy show! Who could have thought that you had sunk So very low As not to hold it clearly sinful To get your miserable skin full?
Defendant has a right, I think, To trial by her peers; Are you one when you are in drink Up to your ears? You’re not her equal by a pailful When you’ve enough to make a whale full.
Judge Ross, who never, never looks On wine when it is red, But sits cold sober cramming books Into his head, Poor fellow! must have felt quite rueful, Observing, not himself, but you full.
Ah, well, I know you did not mean⁠— ’Twas all an accident: You drank between drinks, and between Them you repent. But just prepare for something awful In words: That jurist has his jaw full.

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