A HANGING ON
CHESTNUT STREET
(philadelphia)
(philadelphia)
'Whyo Whyo GOODBYE HELLO :
I believe in Michelangelo, Velasquez,
Rembrandt, Blake and Picasso too and
I'm holding loose for something - some
kind of noose - for jumping, and I look
at the branches I pass beneath and visualize
on each a rope and a neck and a man with a
knot, a rim-tied fragment of death annealing
and about to happen : and THERE! WHAM!
they kick the chair out from under him and
he's dangling quick and feet are shimmying
all over and he's seeming to hold his breath
and one arm reaches up one great hand pulls
and grabs on the rope, a massive tug to relieve
the neck pressure and the other hand goes into
a pocket (this is all instant and swift in one long
could-be-the-last breath) A MAN DEFEATING
HIS OWN HANGING! and he flashes out quickly
a knife and flips open the big blade sharpened to
a hone-like-glass and I watch startled on Chestnut
Street as that massive hand and arm deftly cut
through the rope (think as a coil, thick as it is)
and he fleetingly cuts himself down!! landing with
a thud on the ground as he quickly loosens the
rope knot and sits there stunned WHILE ALL THE
OTHERS HAVE FLED and I watch all this like as
a horrid dream and can never think of trees the same
again : 'for children at the gate who will not go away
and cannot pray, for those who chose and oppose,
OH MY PEOPLE WHAT HAVE I DONE!!'
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