I worked alongside a hangman
With tender eyes, and delicate hands
Dawning his mask he called across the gravestones to me - how’s that girl? You ever going to get off your ass and propose?
One day old man, one day.

I watch as he draws the strings tight
Fastens the two sides of the floor like a mousetrap
As the priest reads the only rites the condemned could still cling to
Obscured by the hood he whispered
I’m sorry
As he took the lever in his hand - like an old friends embrace
It’s easy to forget all the flags and rhetoric
When you watch a hanged man dance all night in the wind
There was something beautiful
About someone stronger
Than those whom horror eats
Wiping a tear from his face
The hangman invited us to dinner.