rule of thumb (i.e. "left hand thumb" finished)

I smoothed out the meter a bit and fixed expressions here and there. I also added a bridge that unfortunately has the same meter as the verses - that happens often to me, I'm normally not too good with bridges. But I changed its rhyming pattern a little to X A X A instead of A B A B.

rule of thumb

you beat up your wife when you felt like it
you bullied, threatened, abused her
at last she broke out after one of your fits
to escape from opression and torture

you pestered your brother-in-law to find out
where your wife might have fled and be hiding
he would not reveal her whereabouts
so you seized him to get him confiding

you punched him hard because you knew he knew,
broke his nose, tore his nails, yet still
he'd said no word when he died off on you
though you had never intended to kill

by rule of thumb
a severed thumb stickin' out
will mean thumbs down
in the end for you

this tiny part
of your victim's corpse
makes your whole home town
point a finger at you

you butchered your victim quite thoroughly
and disposed of your slaughterhouse waste
who'd have thought that a crow eventually
would find his thumb to her taste

yet lose her precious prey in mid-air
while bein' captured on CCTV
it dropped right on a crowded public square
giving voice to a silent man's plea

his thumb providing the only proof
of what the police had conjectured
so you've got no choice to stand aloof
or hold the alibi you'd manufactured

by rule of thumb
his severed thumb stickin' out
will mean thumbs down
in the end for you

this tiny part
of your victim's corpse
makes your whole home town
point a finger at you

from the beyond your victim has sent
his message for all to witness
being helped by a crow he charged his thumb
with pursuing the course of justice

by rule of thumb
his severed thumb stickin' out
will mean thumbs down
in the end for you

this tiny part
of your victim's corpse
makes your whole home town
point a finger at you