Histrionics

--Albert Parsons

went to his death

singing Annie Laurie;

didn't another have

a rose in his coat--

or was it a pink--

dramatizing himself--

Blooded rose

stalk

hanging out of an empty

coat lapel,

or was it a pink carnation

rose color soft as sunrise

glimmering upon a gallows,

and streak of silver song

ravelled with the rain

on a filthy Chicago morning in the Eighties--

you shall outlast horizons.

Lola Ridge

(Picture: Chicago, Aaron Siskind)