Dreyfus Innocent Poem by John a'Beckett

Injured from the Battle of the Marne, wounds fatal-
his mind back-flashing to the events of The Affair:
Schwartzkoppen in a back-street Berlin hospital.
truth locked inside him, conscience meant, intent on
creaking to get out. 'Frenchmen, Dreyfus.. is innocent!
The culprit all along...Count Esterhazy'; but there
the travesty of justice is washed over by the years:
all protagonists diverted by the currents of careers.

Ten years before this, Cafe de Rome in dank Paris:
three men boasting of their different stints in jail:
Oscar Wilde just out of Reading and Frank Harris
with his life and lies and the third man out of pale
decides to play the trump card: 'Dreyfus is innocent..
the author of the memorandum's -me! '; but too bent
on banding anecdotes; his confession falls on ears
deaf to what’s not the boast of literary careers.

Must it be said that Emile Zola also staked his all:
fame, wealth and popularity, when he lit the fuse
by publishing in Dawn his inflammatory 'J'accuse! '
when four years before the bomb-shell, you’ll recall
Lucy pleads to the writer that 'My husband's innocent..
Do what you can” The writer then, there indifferent,
convinced of Dreyfus guilt- did Zola seal his fate
by awakening to injustice when it was too late?

And Dreyfus himself, framed for treason, stripped
of rank, sword and honour in a degradation meant
to raise the howls, he cries: 'Soldiers, I am innocent! '
'Down with the traitor' is replied and silence gripped
men of otherwise out-spoken point of view; include
Clemenceau, Picard; men caught up in the moment-
could they to Truth have been so indifferent, dumber?
But they then were marching to a different drummer-

whose beat rattled off to war, drowned out the fears
to fight injustice might jeopardize their own careers.