Lynching in the 21st Century - a poem

           Lynching in the 21^st Century

                      By Charlielmo

A length of rope, knotted each end, a sailor’s tool,

A cowboy’s friend, a length, a distance from limb to ground, from

Limbs to ground, feet dangling and neck snapped. A length of rope

Pulled tight in a loop, a judgment call, a just dessert pulled

Taught along its length. A rope. Merely a rope.

It is not the rope that swings, but what is swung. The bulk

Pendulum of righteousness moves the body and the stress of

Gravity bends the limb. The movement a natural

Consequence of the tension of the rope and the

Knots at each end. The distance from the ground a

Judgment call. The twitching limbs, merely limbs.

It is not the judgment on which it is hung, nor

Fate playing the satisfied onlooker or reluctant

Witness to the deed. It is all of us together, victims and

Perpetrators embodied in each individual, standing

Or swinging, accusing or denying, confessing or dying

Unredeemed, irredeemable, unrecoverable and

Distraught.

It is a length of rope, knotted each end, a helix of hemp

Twisting like some fibrous DNA from this point to that, from

This beginning to that

Terminus. It is never a question of who mans

Either end. Both executioner and condemned wear

The hood, so

We can all pretend to know

Nothing of the process. We can all pretend that it

Was the will of some almighty

Being or some godforsaken text, to allow our minds some rest. We

Can all pretend

It was the rope.