Students of Law

owe much of what they know

to an Amorite young man

who loved to play with clay

when he was a child

At eighteen

he became a king

and Mesopotamia lay at his feet

but never could he

abandon his childhood passion

to craft tablets out of clay

On one tablet his stylus wrote:

“If a man put out the eye of another man,

his eye shall be put out.”

and wrote again:

“If a man knock out the teeth of his equal,

his teeth shall be knocked out”

Today they call it: “the Law of Talion”

 “An eye for an eye

and

a tooth for a tooth”

a mirror punishment

Great Masters of Law!

Heirs of Hammurabi!

Is there no room

in your talionic justice tomes

for a reward mirror:

Love for Love?