The Angry Exile: The future of public transport.

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

Wednesday, 22 September 2010

The future of public transport.

It may include 150mph buses but don't think that means you won't still share the experience with a lot of discarded burger wrappers, chewing gum, three other people's unsynched MP3s being played just loud enough to hear and be annoyed by but not to actually listen and possibly enjoy, the mad woman with a carrier bag full of plastic bottle caps who has been passed through five councils' social services in as many years, as well as being the victim of grievous bodily odour courtesy of the fat, grimy KFC event horizon in the football shirt sitting opposite. It's just that at 150mph you won't have to put up with it for as long.

8 comments:

Akvavitix said...: Ah! But this bus is in Germany, not Merseyside Mr Exile.; 22 September 2010 at 21:11
Angry Teen said...: The reason why one must ALWAYS listen to music on a bus—often loudly—is to drown out all of the other unpleasant noises.

Because what is more annoying than listening to the conversations which thug children—who seem to be becoming younger every year—have?

Oh, and by the way, Disqus is disqusting. I want you to get rid of it.; 23 September 2010 at 01:57
Angry Exile said...: German bus, Akvavitix, but going to Holland first. This might not be a bad thing. But when it gets to Britain I'm sure it'll be ruined.

Angry Teen, fair point about the music but I feel the answer to that is to invest in some decent speakers and a car to put them in. You'll enjoy better sound quality and won't have the thug children. Oh, and congratulations on using the word disqusting. Your vouchers for a fortnight's unpaid holiday with Gordon Brown will be on their way to your nearest tax office where you will only need to fill in a return and pay three year's NICs up front in order to have them sent on to you, and then wait for them to be misaddressed to Mrs Angus Tyne. In the unlikely event it happens will you give Gordon a hand with his book, 'cause it'll be complete shit otherwise. :-) Seriously, though, my mind's not made up yet. There are a few things I like about it but the fact that the page loads take longer is a drawback. It's okay on a decent connection but I've checked it on dialup and it's bloody awful. Mind you, everything on dialup is bloody awful.; 23 September 2010 at 02:34
Angry Exile said...: German bus, Akvavitix, but going to Holland first. This might not be a bad thing. But when it gets to Britain I'm sure it'll be ruined.

Angry Teen, fair point about the music but I feel the answer to that is to invest in some decent speakers and a car to put them in. You'll enjoy better sound quality and won't have the thug children. Oh, and congratulations on using the word disqusting. Your vouchers for a fortnight's unpaid holiday with Gordon Brown will be on their way to your nearest tax office where you will only need to fill in a return and pay three year's NICs up front in order to have them sent on to you, and then wait for them to be misaddressed to Mrs Angus Tyne. In the unlikely event it happens will you give Gordon a hand with his book, 'cause it'll be complete shit otherwise. :-) Seriously, though, my mind's not made up yet. There are a few things I like about it but the fact that the page loads take longer is a drawback. It's okay on a decent connection but I've checked it on dialup and it's bloody awful. Mind you, everything on dialup is bloody awful.; 23 September 2010 at 02:35
Angry Exile said...: German bus, Akvavitix, but going to Holland first. This might not be a bad thing. But when it gets to Britain I'm sure it'll be ruined.; 23 September 2010 at 02:36
Bucko said...: I'm with the Teen. On the (frequent) occasions my banger is in the back yard awaiting attention, I have to take the bus. I always use my ipad to drown out the immensley boring shite that people come out with, usually on their mobile phones. It starts off at a respectable volume and gets considerably louder as the journey goes on.; 23 September 2010 at 04:02
Bucko said...: I'm also with the Teen on the comments. Its pants.
They read in the reverse order and I can't get my Google identity to show up. Poo. (although that might just be me being a biff); 23 September 2010 at 04:05
Angry Exile said...: Hmm. Maybe I need to come and have a look on another computer. I get a drop down to order the comments about four different ways and had left it on oldest comments first. I'd assumed that meant that's how they'd display but perhaps it just means how they'll display for me. As for the Google ID, I'm not sure. Mine links here and the gravatar brings up my Disqus profile, but again that could be because it gets set that way when you set up Disqus comments on your blog. I see Angry Teen's and Akvavitix's both go to Twitter pages and profiles.; 23 September 2010 at 08:19