[RedM]: Outlaw's Atonement - 1

Weakest Link

In a quiet town
Behind the locked doors
of a sheriff's office,
They sat me down
And questioned me--
Soft and cautious.

I'd said too much already
And nothing at all.
I was a dead girl if I said more
So all I could do was bawl.

It was a secret
That I was in debt
to the devil.
But that morning
I'd been arrested alone and
With my nature I'd wrestled–
...and slipped up.

They said I couldn't trust the gang
To have my best intentions.
But I was too scared to leave
Despite their intervention.

The gang fed and sheltered me
But I knew I was being used.
All the same, could I trust the law
Not to deal me the same abuse?

I knew they were right–
But not if they were genuine.
What if their plan was just
To pander and pull me in?

Use me against them,
Arrest them on my words--
Break the chain by one weak link
Then leave me to the fate I'd incurred?

Lawmen were supposed to be just
But I'd seen their ugliness just as much
As I'd seen ours.
How could I be asked to trust?

The gang had gotten me drunk and drugged,
Shot on their accord–
But they swore to me in their lying tongues:
Do as we do, 
you’ll be well-fed and adored,
Earn what you owe,
And freedom will be your reward.

…So the little bird
Sat quietly in her cage
And her tragedy continued
unbroken
Onto the next page.