Our sainted great-great
grandmothers
used to sit and knit
under the gallows.
No one remembers what it is
they were knitting
and what happened when the ball of yarn
rolled out of their laps
and had to be retrieved?
One pictures the hooded executioner
and his pasty-faced victim
interrupting their grim business
to come quickly to their aid.
Confirmed pessimists
and other party-poopers
categorically reject
such far-fetched notions
of gallows etiquette.
---Charles Simic
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