NaPM April 15th 2019

[dukealien]

Madland


This place is very strange.
I am a stranger here, as well,
but this merely enhances
my sense I have departed sanity.

Yesterday, I was stopped by
a policeman.  Though I had been told
of their strange customs, I feared
our countrymen here were
setting up a cruel joke on me.

But, in truth, it happened as they said.
There could be no doubt:
this armed policeman had no thought
of receiving a gift for himself,
to forget my speeding.

What a nation!  How can it operate
without prejudice against a stranger
like myself, not of their tribe,
and no profit to office-holders
from their duties?  How can they pay
their superiors for securing
their positions?  It is a mystery.

I do not like it - one does not know
where one stands.  How can business operate
without rivers of gratuities,
banknotes in envelopes?
These men are mad.