[Newspoetry] Arguments and debates

[DL Emerick]

Arguments differ from debates
An argument is fueled by emotion,
but a debate is about reason.

First there is the complaint stage,
which we call the affirmative,
in this stage the claim is made.

I said to my wife I plan divorce,
because I do not love her any more,
because she doesn't love me anymore.

Do you love someone else?  Oh, yes.
It's the other woman defense gambit,
but she does not care about that.

She attacks me on a point of honor.
If you were a man of true honor,
you'd kill you, but you're a coward.

Camus never put existence on the line
not like this as a question of meaning,
this idea of living have me, life without care.

And, said I gamely, what if I had died,
say in an auto accident or an operation,
Well, then, I would never have known.

Question knowledge, willful ignorance.
So, she said, will you go to her.
No, she won't have me but I'd go.

It's quite simple from my simple view,
I can't live a lie nor one of pretense.
I have to leave her and all too soon.

Not good enough said she, impatiently.
You ought to leave tonite, right away,
I fear your being here threatens me.

There's no cause for alarm, say I --
I've never been much for violence,
except in honorable self-defense.

But, she said, I seized all assets,
taken over all of the money accounts,
turned you into one of the paupers.

Oh, dear, there is no justice here,
not in your play of vengeful ways,
not in your brute force of laws.

The state does not write its laws
to prolong the personal agony,
it's all about an equity business.

The state is neutral and impartisan,
you can not ignore facts of history,
I have rights that are not forgotten.

So, the storm passed over me again.