More to the Story . . .
Oh, wait a minute.
Rewind.
The blood disappears from the blade.
The guillotine becomes a sapling in the woods.
The blade lies deep in a mine.
The Nembutol separates into basic elements
and diffuses into the night.
They delay, not stay.
Dare I hope?
The second hand crawls.
We check in on the game.
The minutes become many.
The Georgia Supreme Court weighs the scales, a nice looking group of at least three African Americans and at least one woman, Southern belle with real gold jewelry, in chambers late tonight instead of at home with say, a book, a single-malt scotch from Scotland and a good sound system.
The hours become 1,2,3,4.
I hope and hope and pray; my gut twists on my cheeseburger.
And the verdict comes in.
"Proceed with the execution."
It happens one more time
at 11:08 PM.
Nancy Penn lives in Rhode Island with her husband and their dog and two cats, writes poetry and fiction. Over the years, her writing has appeared in local publications and she has read at various readings. She attended a workshop with Marie Howe, Mark Doty, Patricia Smith and Billy Collins at Omega last August and enjoys a wonderful network of poets from that workshop who continue to inspire and support each other.
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Nancy Penn lives in Rhode Island with her husband and their dog and two cats, writes poetry and fiction. Over the years, her writing has appeared in local publications and she has read at various readings. She attended a workshop with Marie Howe, Mark Doty, Patricia Smith and Billy Collins at Omega last August and enjoys a wonderful network of poets from that workshop who continue to inspire and support each other.
_____________________________________________________