Gamzon Ekphrastic Photo Poem

A Five-turn Knot

            I really did not think Mrs. Surratt would be swung from the end of it, but she was, and it   was         demonstrated to my                 satisfaction, at least, that a five-turn knot will perform as         successful a job as a            seven-turn knot.—Colonel                 (Captain) Christian Rath

Upstairs in his room at the penitentiary,

the hangman prepared

four nooses for the executions,

carefully measuring out the lengths

of Boston hemp brought in

from the Navy Yard,

cutting and saving one last length of rope

for mother-- just in case--still praying

he would not need it the next day.

Three seven-turn knots

for three of the condemned.

Three regulation hangman knots

neatly wound military style.

The captain slighted the fourth

coiling only five turns.

A shoddy job, he must have thought,

or perhaps his heart was not in it

or  he was tired

and placed it aside.

The ropes still needed testing, though.

He tied each noose to a tree limb

and a bag of buckshot,

then tossed the bag to the ground.

The ropes performed successfully

as they would the next day.

Stretched taut, the ropes held

All four lifeless bodies slowly swinging

in the sweltering heat of a July afternoon--

the coiled knot of the noose

underneath four white hoods

tight against each left ear.