The Warden & The Hangman

I saw you there, face grim and arms bare.
All in tears, placed in the electric chair.
All that you have been has suddenly become the air around me.
As I breathe you in.
I shiver in your place, for you have left your body in a haste.
I never even got to watch you make a final blink.
Your life is now a blot of ink,
And I can hardly tell what it was that you had been writing.
And now I crawl into myself.
Like you held fast until morning in your cell.
Though you weren’t righteous, and you never knew what wrong is,
I have loved you in spite of this, and I promise I will mourn you,
And I am glad that you forgave the warden and the hangman.
In your final words,
I saw the man I knew was meant to be my friend until the end.
I guess you were, my brother, just not in a good way,
And now I crawl into myself.
And in time I’ll also crawl out of this hell.
Fare thee well forever, I will suffer still a little longer,
But I have no anger, no fear, no masks, no veneers,
For today I saw the law break itself in awe.
You have never done the things they said you’ve done,
And we both knew, and now I know alone,
And they will burn the whitest bones.
Is this how we atone?
And now I crawl into myself.
While they bury you in existential jail.