by Judith Skillman
Herr Drumpf fastened by the feet
to a wooden panel, drawn behind a horse
as illustrated in Matthew Paris’s Chronica Majora,
hanged almost to the point
of death. Watch as Drumpf’s emasculated,
disemboweled, beheaded, quartered.
See his remains on display (as depicted in the execution
of Hugh Dispenser the Younger),
where a crowd of brightly dressed 13th century men
gather to view a ladder. A fire
blazes on the ground,
logs crisscrossed like bound limbs.
Another ladder holds green capped executioner
with his short sharp knife. I watch
Mr. President’s flesh gape, pulled apart
at collarbone and genitalia.
At the base of these Elizabethan ladders
placed in perspective by the painter, Froissart of Louise of Gruthuse,
a group of top-hatted gentlemen gesture.
Bulldozers sit where the ballroom
would have been, heaps of dirt piled. A group of giant moles
unearthed the newest labyrinth a la Hamas.
And here we are, dressed to the nines,
wearing ballet-like slippers,
talking in low tones, holding not iPhones but harmonicas.
Let this be an example
for any would be high treasonist’s,
as well as Matthew Lambert,
the Irishman who suffered this punishment
as little ago as 1581.
If he’d been a woman
he’d have been burned at the stake
for reasons of public decency.
Judith Skillman is the author of twenty collections of poetry. Her work has appeared in Commonweal, Threepenny Review, The Southern Review, Zyzzyva, and numerous other literary journals. She has received funding from The Academy of American Poets and Artist Trust, among other organizations. Her new book is Oppression, Shanti Arts, 2026.
