They paid the farmer not to farm.
They told the surgeon to do no harm.
They paid the parishioner not to pray.
They paid the piano player not to play.
They paid the doctor not to heal.
They paid the thief not to steal.
They paid the writer not to write.
They paid the soldier not to fight.
They paid the cops to bear no arms,
The arsonist, to set off no alarms.
They paid the photographer not to shoot
Or lick the officer’s shiny black boot.
They paid the poet to eat no peaches.
They paid the professor to make no speeches.
They paid the lawyer not to lie.
They paid the widow not to die.
David Lehman’s “New and Selected Poems” appeared from Scribner in November 2013. He is the editor of “The Oxford Book of American Poetry” and author of “A Fine Romance: Jewish Songwriters, American Songs,” which won ASCAP’s Deems Taylor Award in 2010.
