Drowning In Nettles Poem by Mary Champion

Drowning in nettles -
the stinging rebukes,
the burning anger,
all directed at me.

My transgression was unforgivable!
No murderer I;
no abuser of innocent children!
no heartless plutocrat!
no brutal, capitalist exploiter of the planet,
or my workforce!
no drug-dealing destroyer of lives!

I was guilty of no such offence.
My inexcusable crime
was far more egregious:
I stood up and told them the bitter Truth.

I held a mirror before them
and the image reflected was unbearable.
So they turned all their acrimony towards me
and I drowned in the fires of their hatred.