Last Thoughts

I hung that one last moment

Low down that lethal rope

As the noose squeezed away

My last and fleeting hope

I wondered what had happened

Had Blind Justice lost its way

Could not that gentle Mercy

Stop the dawning of this day

Last night was never ending

Lying numb in darkened space

I heard my daughter's prayer

For the dawn to hide its face

They said that I was guilty

I know I was guilty too

Could they not see I tried

My wrongdoings to undo

I returned from where I'd fled

Back to the home I'd known

-that home that I had wounded-

For my actions to atone

They say that time is fleeting

One's life with dangers fraught

I cursed the steps I'd taken

That turned my life to naught

I told them what I knew

Of the actions that were taken

By others of faith and family

That left my spirit shaken.

Was I just one of them

Or was I of different mould

Could not they tell the difference

From all that I had told.

A father and a husband

Counting seconds of his life

Now asks for peace and honor

For his daughter and his wife.