Wrong Address (Poetry)

“RETURN TO SENDER”
yet the sender doesn’t want to know
such clear advice —
“NOT KNOWN AT THIS ADDRESS”—
and keeps on writing ...

Phone calls makes no difference.
It seems agencies once set upon a course
can’t be deflected but proceed
as though contradictory information
strangely alters nothing.

And so it is more letters come
for someone it appears is classed as alien
who has never lived here in his life
but now is hunted legally and threatened by
a signature similarly anonymous ... illegible to us.

The penalties described within are stiff enough —
possible detention plus substantial fines.
The deadline set is soon — a few days hence
and if provisos are not met
the Law’s blunt instrument will fall for certain.

Is there no subtle brake might be applied
to stop this runaway administration? —
slow it down to hear the truth’s cool reason
and admit one basic fact — their record’s wrong
and no one of the name they quote
has ever lodged — not for a night — within
                                these four straight walls.