The Warden & The Hangman

I saw you there, face grim and arms bare

All in tears, placed in the electric chair

All that you have been has suddenly become the air around me. As I breathe you in, I shiver in your place, for you have left your body in a haste. I never even got to watch you make a final blink. Your life is now a blot of ink, and I can hardly tell what it was that you had been writing

And now I crawl into myself
Like you held fast until morning in your cell

Though you weren’t righteous, and you never knew what wrong is, I have loved you in spite of this, and I promise I will mourn you, and I’m glad that you forgave the warden and the hangman. In your final words, I saw the man I knew was meant to be my friend until the end. I guess you were, my brother, just not in a good way

And now I crawl into myself
And in time I’ll also crawl out of this hell

Fare thee well forever, I will suffer still a little longer, but I have no anger, nor fear, no masks, no veneers, for today I saw the law break itself in awe. You have never done the things they said you’ve done, and we both knew, and now I know alone, and they will burn the whitest bones. Is this how we atone?

Well now I crawl, into myself
While they bury you in existential jail