The Lawyer Drinks Alone

(photo by Esther Bubley)

(A recent report in the “Australasian Lawyer” disclosed research suggesting the Legal profession was the most depressed profession, and the highest user of legal depressants).

 

Worse than in “Aubade”

We work all day, and get drunk at night.

Like Saul Goodman, glum and quiet,

Hammering rusty nails, bedight

In shame.  Sampling the contents

Of a bottle in chambers, forlorn,

In dark corners, with dark materials,

Knowing only, qua Tulkinghorn,

Those dark parts of the human soul

So that one admits no other.

Therefore we look on the bottle

As one would a reliable lover.

And why not?  The days

Are measured out in units of six;

The market desires us merely

For our poorly imagined tricks,

And wants everything

Done yesterday;

Never dreaming

Such is done for pay.

Wedged in a profession – now an industry;

Where the client is the enemy;

Where colleagues are afflicted by

A moral blindness, to comply

With precepts, to make quarrels,

All the while ignoring morals…