Death March
by Sarah Malini
I am strung up now like any common criminal
or disobedient slave.
Nailed to the stake of industry
forced to carry the crossbeam of my duties
through the streets
to the site of our public executions.
Lashed not upon olive tree beams
but maple here, a reminder of just who I have disobeyed
and disappointed and disavowed.
I don’t remember making any promises
to follow this social contract
just the act of living has been enough
to ink my name
and social insurance number
to a contract I never got the chance to read.
It will take days
before I die.
Shoulders ripped from sockets,
festering sepsis and possible asphyxiation
when I can no longer
bear up all my own weight,
dehydration as the turkey vultures
wheel above me, in a wake
unable to wait.
The Roman Empire used this most efficient method
as a warning to the other miscreants that gathered.
And like all else we do,
here we emulate the great leaders
of western civilization past.
If it worked for them
it should work for us too.
Among the many bodies left to rot
wither and dry out
bones cracking into dust in the sun,
does my emaciated corpse
look good hung up on display?
or disobedient slave.
Nailed to the stake of industry
forced to carry the crossbeam of my duties
through the streets
to the site of our public executions.
Lashed not upon olive tree beams
but maple here, a reminder of just who I have disobeyed
and disappointed and disavowed.
I don’t remember making any promises
to follow this social contract
just the act of living has been enough
to ink my name
and social insurance number
to a contract I never got the chance to read.
It will take days
before I die.
Shoulders ripped from sockets,
festering sepsis and possible asphyxiation
when I can no longer
bear up all my own weight,
dehydration as the turkey vultures
wheel above me, in a wake
unable to wait.
The Roman Empire used this most efficient method
as a warning to the other miscreants that gathered.
And like all else we do,
here we emulate the great leaders
of western civilization past.
If it worked for them
it should work for us too.
Among the many bodies left to rot
wither and dry out
bones cracking into dust in the sun,
does my emaciated corpse
look good hung up on display?
Sarah Malini is a poet living in Southern Ontario with her dog. She has work to be published in the forthcoming anthology from Propertius Press. When she is not traipsing about barefoot in her garden she can be found lurking on twitter at @smalini9.