The Patience Of The Chopping Block

-The Patience Of The Chopping Block-
by Keaton Foster


The head
The neck
To be separated
Instantly severing
The connection
A spectacle to see
Gruesome is the deed
A hooded figure stands
A representation
Of humankind
Commissioned
By a false king
His identity
Kept a secret
His pathology
Quite apparent
Often no better
Than those condemned
Reprisal is the risk
One that he
Is unwilling to accept
He says nothing
As the one meant to die
Begs for everything
There will be
No leniency
Nothing of forgiveness
Up higher
Than those down so low
A regal man stands
Very well spoken
Eloquently engrossing
He reads the charges
Assuring everyone present
That they are witnesses
To the mercy of the king
He assures them all
That this man’s death
Will be instant
Because no mind
Can live without a body
The criminal must die
And such obvious pagans
Must be warned
Reminded time and again
Do as this man does
And pay as he will
You must
A cleaver Amen
Is thrown in
As if God above
Would have anything
To do with such
Unrequited barbarism
There is no spoken order
But the man with the axe
And the pompas ass speaking
Have worked out
A silent queue
A nod or a wink
A passage to be spent
Marking the swing
Followed by the end
Never does the killer miss
But just for a second
Imagine if he did
Oh the hell it would bring
For everyone in attendance
Such an event
Would be horrific
Instead of mundane
Like what they now see
Down the blade has fallen
The patience of the chopping block
Has been answered
The gapping maw
Opens true and wide
The body
Separated from mind
Is left twitching
As the mind
Severed from its spine
Receives no further signal
No flood of distress
Causing endorphins
To rush in
Reducing the shock
Of what is of course
An unnatural event
In a basket the head sits
To be kept as a gift
A warning to those
Who raise their voices
In the proximity of the king
To those who commit
Any crimes punishable by death
Upon a spike it will soon rest
The body is dragged off
Beaten and bashed
Careless are those so tasked
Lazy they have become
Quite shallow it will be kept
Spreading disease
Pungent will be the smell
An off-putting reminder
Of what those in power
Are quite capable of…


The Patience Of The Chopping Block
Written by Keaton Foster Copyright © 2015.