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.