The Execution of Karla Faye

The Execution of Karla Faye

Original Text
Michael Boughn, Dislocations in Crystal (Toronto: Coach House Books, 2003): 63. PS8553 .O7915 D57 2003 Robarts Library
1Of course they've been cheering death forever, ask
2Lorca or Antigone, an execution a day in the US
3they say, something to work for, that guy in the Stop 'N' Go
4when they bombed Gaddafi's kid, cheering at
5the thought of pain, but that's the neighbourhood's
6dark end anyway, get used to it, light your candles
7march around the lake, don't lose sight of Amelia
8(how they ever could have thought that smile less
9than all their clutching--Wordsworth had that down
10alright--then here we are, maybe that's what they hope
11to drown out cheering the news she died when the state
12whatever the hell that is plunged or pulled whatever techné
13ecstasis extension holding it to crucial distance, still somewhere
14flesh touches some thing, and we'd better be prepared
15for the whole bloody mess because even if home
16of ourselves is a rumoured infrapsychisme from which
17undisputed program is accessible to, say, rejig the works
18thru poem's possible modulations, there's still north
19of that, south, east, west and when you get home
20guess who's waiting.

Notes

1] Karla Faye Tucker: the first woman executed in Texas since the Civil War, the first in the United States since 1984, committed murder while under the influence of drugs and died of lethal injection on February 3, 1998, in the Huntsville Unit, Huntsville, Texas. Pope John Paul II and the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, were among the many who urged that her death sentence be commuted. A crowd outside Huntsville prison cheered and celebrated at the news of her execution. Back to Line
2] Lorca: Federico García Lorca (1898-1936), Spanish poet and dramatist, presumed executed by anti-communists during the Spanish civil war.
Antigone: daughter of Oedpius and his mother Jocasta, sister of her slain brother Polynices who against Creon's order gave him a proper burial, for which reason she was walled up and then committed suicide by hanging. Back to Line
3] Stop 'N' Go: chain of convenience stores in upstate New York, Wisconsin and Illinois. Back to Line
4] Gaddafi's kid: In 1986, the United States bombed Libya in retaliation for Libyan involvement in the bombing of a Berlin discotheque. Libya claimed that the recently adopted infant daughter of Gaddafi was killed in the attack. Back to Line
7] Amelia: the poet's daughter. Back to Line
9] William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet. Back to Line
13] ecstasis: standing outside of oneself (Greek). Back to Line
16] infrapsychisme: a philosophical position that matter outside living creatures possesses mind. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2011
Rhyme
unrhyming
Form
varying
Special Copyright

Copyright © Michael Boughn and used by permission of the poet. Authorization to republish this poem must be obtained from him in writing.