Kicked the Bucket - July 19, 2025

originally, the hangman’s foot

delivering the hanged man’s sentence

now it’s a no tears, no drama way

to describe someone who died

whose sentence was not for crookery

or murder or anything nefarious

just the last words on the last page

of the contract, signed at birth

for an end that comes one way or

another, no matter how cleanly and

carefully life is lived

also, a hangman today wouldn’t like

our preference for natural death

for the new job he’d have to apply for