the oratory victory
by David X. Hugo
the greatest speech i ever wrote
was told in front of the hangman’s noose
for a moments time the nearly departed did think
“why maybe this aint’ so bad”
and the greatest moment in my career
was communicated through the still, dead feet
no twitching
a relaxed hanging, i thought
is a good one
i felt most human then.
wow
The closeness and fascination humanity has with death is almost palpable here. I can taste it. It washes over the poem’s speaker like the thick, oily, blackness of evil personified in “kid’s” movies. AKA, “Fern Gully” or “Secret of NIMH” (which, in reality, are quite the horror flicks.)