Lauding Himself

Actually as a testimonial describing
the man as kind, helpful, a loving
person, it seemed quite impressive.
Here is a man of virtue originally 
from a war-torn nation where conflict
never ends, arrived as a refugee at 
age ten with his parents, soon unable 
to cope becoming a ward of the state 
and eventually convicted of a long slate 
of crimes, mired in drug use and street 
life. Without citizenship preparations 
were underway to rid the state of his
violent presence, authorities having
identified him as a threat to the public
a repeat offender, a violent threatening 
man, extradition in the offing. Pleading 
clemency claiming his life in danger 
if returned from whence he came, a 
strange society, a language unfamiliar
no friends, no family there where
broadly speaking criminality and
turbulent behaviour echoes his own
the character reference might have
been taken seriously had it emerged
from the mind and mouth of someone
other than the very man himself.