The Angry Exile: Bloody Blogger.

The Hangman

Into our town the Hangman came,
Smelling of gold and blood and flame.
And he paced our bricks with a diffident air,
And built his frame in the courthouse square.
The scaffold stood by the courthouse side,
Only as wide as the door was wide;
A frame as tall, or little more,
Than the capping sill of the courthouse door.
And we wondered, whenever we had the time,
Who the criminal, what the crime
That the Hangman judged with the yellow twist
of knotted hemp in his busy fist.
And innocent though we were, with dread,
We passed those eyes of buckshot lead --
Till one cried: "Hangman, who is he
For whom you raised the gallows-tree?"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
And he gave us a riddle instead of reply:
"He who serves me best," said he,
"Shall earn the rope of the gallows-tree."
And he stepped down, and laid his hand
On a man who came from another land.
And we breathed again, for another's grief
At the Hangman's hand was our relief
And the gallows-frame on the courthouse lawn
By tomorrow's sun would be struck and gone.
So we gave him way, and no one spoke,
Out of respect for his Hangman's cloak.
The next day's sun looked mildly down
On roof and street in our quiet town,
And stark and black in the morning air
Was the gallows-tree in the courthouse square.
And the Hangman stood at his usual stand
With the yellow hemp in his busy hand;
With his buckshot eye and his jaw like a pike
And his air so knowing and business-like.
And we cried, "Hangman, have you not done
Yesterday, with the foreign one?"
Then we fell silent, and stood amazed,
"Oh, not for him was the gallows raised."
He laughed a laugh as he looked at us:
"Did you think I'd gone to all this fuss
To hang one man? That's a thing I do
To stretch a rope when the rope is new."
Then one cried "Murder!" and one cried "Shame!"
And into our midst the Hangman came
To that man's place. "Do you hold," said he,
"with him that was meant for the gallows-tree?"
And he laid his hand on that one's arm.
And we shrank back in quick alarm!
And we gave him way, and no one spoke
Out of fear of his Hangman's cloak.
That night we saw with dread surprise
The Hangman's scaffold had grown in size.
Fed by the blood beneath the chute,
The gallows-tree had taken root;
Now as wide, or a little more,
Than the steps that led to the courthouse door,
As tall as the writing, or nearly as tall,
Halfway up on the courthouse wall.
The third he took -- we had all heard tell --
Was a usurer, and an infidel.
"What," said the Hangman "have you to do
With the gallows-bound, and he a Jew?"
And we cried out, "Is this one he
Who has served you well and faithfully?"
The Hangman smiled: "It's a clever scheme
to try the strength of the gallows-beam."
The fourth man's dark, accusing song
Had scratched our comfort hard and long;
"And what concern," he gave us back.
"Have you for the doomed -- the doomed and Black?"
The fifth. The sixth. And we cried again,
"Hangman, Hangman, is this the man?"
"It's a trick," he said. "that we hangmen know
For easing the trap when the trap springs slow."
And so we ceased, and asked no more,
As the Hangman tallied his bloody score.
And sun by sun, and night by night,
The gallows grew to monstrous height.
The wings of the scaffold opened wide
Till they covered the square from side to side;
And the monster cross-beam, looking down,
Cast its shadow across the town.
Then through the town the Hangman came,
Through the empty streets, and called my name --
And I looked at the gallows soaring tall,
And thought, "There is no one left at all
For hanging, and so he calls to me
To help pull down the gallows-tree."
So I went out with right good hope
To the Hangman's tree and the Hangman's rope.
He smiled at me as I came down
To the courthouse square through the silent town.
And supple and stretched in his busy hand
Was the yellow twist of the hempen strand.
And he whistled his tune as he tried the trap,
And it sprang down with a ready snap --
And then with a smile of awful command
He laid his hand upon my hand.
"You tricked me. Hangman!," I shouted then,
"That your scaffold was built for other men...
And I no henchman of yours," I cried,
"You lied to me, Hangman. Foully lied!"
Then a twinkle grew in the buckshot eye,
"Lied to you? Tricked you?" he said. "Not I.
For I answered straight and I told you true --
The scaffold was raised for none but you.
For who has served me more faithfully
Then you with your coward's hope?" said he,
"And where are the others who might have stood
Side by your side in the common good?"
"Dead," I whispered. And amiably
"Murdered," the Hangman corrected me:
"First the foreigner, then the Jew...
I did no more than you let me do."
Beneath the beam that blocked the sky
None had stood so alone as I.
The Hangman noosed me, and no voice there
Cried "Stop!" for me in the empty square.

Maurice Ogden

Friday, 24 September 2010

Bloody Blogger.

Bloody Blogger and bloody Blogger's bloody comment system. I've just found the fucking thing has chucked one of my own comments in the spam bin. Can I prevent a repeat? Doesn't look likely.

Blogger now filters comments that are likely spam comments to a Spam Inbox, much like the spam folder in your email. When someone leaves a comment on your blog, it will be reviewed against our spam detector, and comments that are identified as possible spam will be sent to your blog’s Spam Inbox, found at Comments | Spam.

You can help improve our ability to automatically detect spam comments by checking your Spam Inbox and deleting spam comments and marking real comments that may have been flagged as spam as Not Spam.

We are always seeking feedback on how to improve this feature, so please share your feedback with us by clicking on the Report Spam Filtering Issues.

Ground Control to Blogger Tom... take this feedback pill and put your thinking helmet on. I'm hardly going to spam my own fucking blog, you muppets.

6 comments:

Harbinger said...: I regularly get my comments moved into the spam folder of people's blogs I'm commenting on (I'm sure lots of people will laugh and say your comments are spam..) anyway, it's a pain in the arse. Long comments, comments with links within them will most times go into the Spam folder and it really pisses me off. How about blogger let's the blog owner decide whether it's spam or not? I have a feeling that it's a case of our controllers believing that people will eventually give up posting on blogs for having their comments thrown into the Spam folder, you know, stopping people from hearing the truth and the like?; 24 September 2010 at 07:30
Angry Exile said...: Agreed about Blogger leaving the decision to us, or failing that at least giving much greater control to the person whose blog it is, though as far as the reason why goes I'll go with Hanlon's Razor and presume stupidity over conspiracy.; 24 September 2010 at 08:56
JuliaM said...: Mine hasn't found any yet!; 24 September 2010 at 14:41
Angry Exile said...: Typical. If it's not taking out legitimate comments it's doing more or less bugger all. Sounds like a government operation actually. Maybe Harbinger is right after all...; 24 September 2010 at 16:42
Chuckles said...: Microcosm of the modern world really? Illusions of choice that force you to choose between being shot at dawn, or shot at noon. In order to give you a better service, we will collect your garbage every 2 weeks instead of every week, and you will spend 3 hours sorting it via an ever changing and incomprehensible set of rules.
To improve your customer experience, support will be done via an unanswered or constantly engaged premium cost support number, which connects you to a support centre on the other side of the world.
The only true choice, which is, 'No thanks, I'll stick with what I've got', is seldom offered. The rest is designed by the Sirius Cybernetics Corp.; 24 September 2010 at 16:54
Angry Exile said...: If you have a Plastic Pal Who's Fun To Be With® I really don't want to hear about it.; 24 September 2010 at 19:00