His was not only one more tale of death <br />read and forgotten by the end of day. <br />This time I clicked the link, and short of breath, <br />watched a trembling man begin to pray <br />as five armed militants with hooded faces <br />announced the sentence that would end his life, <br />(a life spent building homes in far off places) . <br />But God forgive if I recall the knife <br />cutting through his larynx, neck and spine, <br />the awful hollow noises of his lungs, <br />the ghostless whimper of his final whine, <br />though to the left of him the morning sun <br />rushed through the curtain from the window-pane, <br />and angels pleaded with the wind in vain.<br /><br />Leo Yankevich<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/on-the-beheading-of-eugene-olin-armstrong/
