MANY OF THEM THAT SLEEP IN THE DUST OF THE EARTH
by Jeff Jeppesen
Lifetimes ago,
Uncle Oscar had an entire room devoted to toy trains
and sometimes he’d let his nephew work the controls all by himself.
A whole little town to move the train through.
Tonight, that nephew
takes the chemical train out of town and
for good.
No one doubts he did it. A whole family
for about 250 dollars cash and a laptop PC.
He’ll tell you himself they just wouldn’t stop staring.
This one, the Warden says, may be uncontestable
but every death gives him pause.
To execute for the State is a monumental responsibility.
He has to look each man in the face and speak doom.
Comes “the nod”, then his heart pounds.
The sensation is like, yet light years removed
from, the burning in his blood
every time he faced down a new batter
in Little League games.
The loudest applause of the evening comes as the Governor
tells the crowd he’s lost not one minute of sleep over
those men put to death under his stewardship.
“We are not here to argue statistics,
this is an issue of morality. Of right and wrong, people.
You commit the ultimate crime; in our great state, you pay
the ultimate price.”
The Governor loved to fly paper kites his Daddy made
from old newspaper and thin wooden dowels,
long bright tails made from pieces of cloth
swiped from Mom’s scrap bin
and you better believe she let Dad have it
when she found out.
Gyroscope Review - page 33
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