A Straw Man’s Song
By Ken LeMarchand
“I shall ask for brains instead of a heart; for a fool would not know what to do with a heart if he had one.”—L. Frank Baum
I.
she left me waiting by the hanging tree
with calloused hands & a six foot rope
made me weave together every strand
till my earthy palms exhumed blood
pain is all she let me know about her
pain, burning straw & red dirt
she made a golem of my ego
churned my straw skin into fool’s gold
she’s Rumpelstiltskin’s successor
grinning in sin, like father like daughter
II.
must she abandon me here by this stump
limbs dangling with the westerly wind
a voodoo scarecrow for her ragtime play
a pound of flesh to keep ravenous crows at bay
stabbed and branded with her devil’s fork
torn together and sown apart, again & again
her distancing voice a cackle like acid rain
the only time she revealed her affection for me
when winter comes, as it has many times before
will I again become prey, a blackbird’s porch
III.
will I gather what’s left of my charred bones
bury my hollow clothes beneath a wayward church
move to the middle of nowhere, profaned
with a cleft chin soaked in a prayerful curse
a wicker fruit plucked from the Tree of Ire
unkempt, unkind, unhurt, no desire
will I rise like a signal fire at night
a burning man free of her hideous sight
or will I remain forever swung
wrapped ‘round the noose of her leathery tongue
A Straw Man's Song