Through early fog a silhouette

With a hunched back from his days,

Was tending to his precious crop

His food for the winter: maize.

A moment later hooves were heard

And a whip and a neigh as well,

T’was the sheriff doing his weekly rounds

(you could tell from his peculiar smell).

He smelled of corruption, and evil too

As he jumped off of his horse,

He walked over to the man, and said with a rasp

“Give me my tax, or I will use force.”

“But sir, I am poor, this is all that I have”

The old man begs and pleads,

“Give me the money, or I will shoot you!”

Said the sheriff with a wheeze.

The man gave him the tax, but was sure to ask

“Why do you take from the poor?”

“Its because I can, and you can’t stop me!

And next week I’ll be back for more.”

Thus is the tale of the empowered official

Using his power to illegally gain,

He does cause he can, and his power protects him

This kind of corruption must soon be slain!

So if one thing could be changed from the world today

No matter how big or small,

There’d be no extortion, no corrupted officials

And no lying or stealing at all.