The Execution

Did you hear? Aren't you excited?

I hear there's to be an execution!

I heard from my neighbor who told her cousin

Who whispered to her boss, as she wrote to her daughter

That today is finally the day.

If you ask me, it's about time they put her out.

That thing has been an abomination since we saw her.

Always on the edge,

The edge of town, the edge of her mind.

I think she likes it there.

But who's to say what she likes?

I mean we already know.

Everyone knows. When you turn her way the air is pungeant, sour with lies.

Lies she tells? I don't know. I only know what I hear.

And I hear there's going to be an execution.

Everyone gathers round her house. There's sequins, cotton, laces, and even the silks

Stop long enough to savor the wind.

There she is, helpless cowering leaf folded inward as if to shield herself from the truth.

The truth that she's....she's...my mouth stings with the word.

Tis not lady-like to say that. That's what mother says. If only she could see this.

This...animal. Has she no sense? Who's loyalties has to she to herself?

With this, baby. This, almond colored, mocha latte anomalie.

"White." murmurs the coloreds. What do they know? It is another ink blot.

Years of doing laundry, yet they don't know a stain when they see it?

How can that thought be entertained? The very thought is beyond lunacy. Black, we say. Obviously.

And the execution starts. The laces step forward, spewing lashing tongues, slicing her mind.

The sequins come next throwing heavy accusations that break her will.

The cottons follow then, smothering her breath in moist rumors. She is still.

Unmoving but alive.

Finally the executioner arrives, silk blowing in the breeze. Everyone is silent.

Says she one word, and the village stops.

"Whore." And the blade comes down severing her mind as she crumples below us.

And our connection to her. We move away, the job finished, the destruction complete.

We all agree it is not very lady-like, but what a perfect Sunday afternoon for an execution.

-D'X. 8/20/07