Chairs

Down there in Tallahassee
they swivel in their leather chairs
and for the third time this decade
argue that the electric chair
is still neither cruel
nor
unusual.

But this time the bony
polyester-covered
asses
twitch a little more uncomfortably, 
robes sliding across the taut, yielding leather.
It's the first time
they've been shown photos of a freshly fried
perpetrator of heinous crime.

Through the years, 
eye-witnesses have reported
flames shooting from the inmates' hair, 
but the great state of Florida
says it's fixed all that.
These pictures recorded no flames, just the first
(reported) instance
of a juiced inmate bleeding.
Bluefaced, screammouthed,
bleeding from the nose.
The leather chair spokesperson said
that being put to death 
[after due process]
will always contain
elements of fear and unpleasantness.
That doesn't equal cruel.

And, really, it's no more unusual
to electrocute someone
than it is to roll him down a hill 
in a wooden barrel, 
in-spiking nails hammered all around,
or to shoot him,
guillotine her,
hang him,
poison him,
burn her,
tear him to pieces with horses,
smother her with stones,
or slide in that quiet, 
peaceful, needle.

8/99