13 Coils to Tie a Hangman’s Noose

I

Among the murder of blackbirds,

The only familiar thing

Was the swinging of a noose.

II

1,000 people saw one noose.

1,000 people saw 1,000 different nooses.

III

A man and a woman are one.

A man and a woman and a

Queer and a pauper and a

Vagrant and a minority are one,

Through the eye of a noose.

IV

I thought myself a blackbird once,

Until a noose reinforced

My brown.

V

I do not know which to prefer,

The beauty of ignorance

Or the beauty of privilege,

The noose hung in jest

Or just hung.

VI

A blackbird tells a joke.

The punch line consists of the two worst words

In American English.  The punch line is “black woman.”

The laughter is as probable as a noose.

VII

In the fray of it all, the difference is grammatical:

Only a noose is hung.

Everything else is hanged.

VIII

The good cowboy shoots the noose.

The ugly cowboy falls, freed.

The good cowboy takes the ugly cowboy back to town.

The town puts the ugly cowboy in a noose again.

IX

Paul sings of blackbirds.

Wallace writes of blackbirds.

Lady was black, and so was Bird.

And Lady sings of nooses.

X

From the safety of a net post

Or a fence post

The blackbird says all nooses are a hoax.

XI

Their tears were diverse as their rose petals,

Marching,

Their unity indispensable,

Like the coils of a noose.

XII

In the time of caps and gowns

My degree on the ground,

I shall tie my tassel loose

Into the shape of a noose

And, upon my wall, hang it upside-down.

XIII

It was dusk for two weeks straight.

And after.

It was raining, and it was going to rain.

It never rains in San Diego,

Says the blackbird to the noose.

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