‘Look! now briefly, mortal living head - <br />As severed from thy now so lifeless limbs <br />In brief and, who knows, truthful, godly view, <br />So solemn, oncely, rare - that fleshly instrument <br />That thou hath used, misused… <br />And learn this last of life’s live lessons, quick and dread <br />In these few seconds of a living death…’ <br /> <br />So Dean John Donne might have wrung out <br />that detail, had he known it – tolled <br />his solemn, tortured, feargod, ringing knell <br /> - had he but known this ‘metaphysical’ quaint fact: <br /> <br />that, when the executioner’s sharp axeblade <br />slices through your neck with such finality, <br />the head maintains its human faculties <br />for eight brief seconds after body falls; <br /> <br />the executioner, it’s said, with great formality, then <br />takes hold that still-life head by its warm hair, <br />and turns it round with all solemnity, <br />to gaze its last repentence or regret <br />upon its frail accomplice on life’s way; <br />the gathered audience awed to silent, ice-cold heart.. <br />last freeze-frame photo of an undeveloped film. <br /> <br />This solemn final courtesy of soul to soul <br />I’ll leave to metaphysicals, to speak life whole.<br /><br />Michael Shepherd<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/0314-executive-decision/
