Hi ! This is a dark political poem about ICE violence, police power, protest, racism, state repression, and the forgotten fact that every government is only a story housed in human bodies.
That's beautiful, thank you. Did you know that the put on puppet shows with the beheaded corpses during the French Revolution, using their bodies like marionettes? So macabre. The scene of Anne Boleyn's beheading in the BBC series of ‘Wolf Hall’ and the subsequent books still haunts me. It was so brutal but had a moment of tenderness that made it all the more horrifying: the executioner makes a noise to make the blindfolded Anne look to one side, tip-toes to the other and swings. Aristocracy had merciful deaths, beheading by sword. The more normal blunt axe often took half a dozen chops. The guillotine was quick, unerring and merciful. You'd remain conscious for a few seconds, but hanging? Before hangmen measured and weighed their victims to make sure they broke their necks it was the most agonizing and undignified death. Victims often ejaculated, a last desperate attempt to spread their seed. It's so brutal and ugly and vicious. We might think we live in ugly and horrible times, but it's nothing compared to how cruel we were in the 16ᵗʰ century. People used to watch executive for entertainment, still did at Tyburn into last century. Public executive became rarer, but WTF? How could anyone take pleasure in another's painful death? Justice? There but for the grace of God? I don't buy any of it.
There is no limit to the depravity, cruelty and barbarity we can imagine and, worse, enact, but there's also no limit to the beauty we can invent. We've come a long, long way, maybe not far enough, but we are going in the right direction.
Thank you, Nicholas! 🤗 I think that in the past there were very few distractions for the large mass of poor people, so many would attend any sort of event, however gruesome, in order to break the boredom of their days. Even gladiators were also delivering a spectacle of death. I’m glad the days we live in are somewhat easier on the eye, although I understand there is still savagery going on in some ISIS camps where they decapitate people.
Humans are only as good as their surroundings, which is why we study crowd psychology. Give someone a very low reference point, such as a crappy president with low morals, and a large part of the population, especially those at the left side of the bell curve in IQ and EQ, will tend to follow that example. Why should they do their best and behave in a mannered way if even the most powerful man in the world doesn’t?
I agree with you in principal. But, there is no "good" way to punish or prevent the desecration of the laws that protect the people from mass murder, starvation, and unlimited cruelty.
THANK YOU! You are saying the same message I have been screaming about for many years, Nicole.
The corruption and stark inequality is coming to a head in America. The people have to WAKE UP soon, or we peasants will have no choice but to take our revenge.
The Oli's and their lackeys are past their limits.
The Constitution specifies the death penalty in cases of TREASON!
What struck me most here is the line “Power here has forgotten / It is housed in meat.” It establishes the central idea with brutal economy: institutions may imagine themselves as permanent and abstract, but ultimately power is exercised by—and over—mortal human beings.
The imagery that follows is relentless. “Ku Klux hoods laundered / Into uniforms and statutes” is particularly sharp because of that word laundered—the suggestion that something recognisable can be cleaned, renamed, institutionalised, and thereby made to appear legitimate without necessarily changing what lies beneath it.
I also appreciated the tension in “I do not praise the cutting.” It prevents the guillotine from becoming merely a celebration of violence. Instead, it becomes a symbol of consequence—the historical knowledge that power is never quite as untouchable as it persuades itself it is.
I write about politics and power at The Reflective State, often through satire rather than poetry, so this was fascinating to encounter through such a different lens. Happily subscribing. If curiosity ever brings you my way, I'd genuinely love to hear what you thin
If you have never listened to Steppenwolf's Monster/Suicide/America, a song they wrote in 1969. You need to. You can see how much we have slipped back into the abyss.
I've been thinking about the guillotine quite a bit over the last few months, and apparently you have been too.
“The wealthy funding their tax cuts on the backs of the American people is a pretty brazen act against the peasantry. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that the American people must face their Marie Antoinette moment sooner than later, and since President Trump just authorized federal firing squads, I believe we should go one step farther and add the guillotine as a punishment remedy, reserved solely for the Epstein class.”
Excuse the late reply, I've only just seen your comment. I don't you read mine, but the guillotine was a rather merciful death: a single cut, no more than a few seconds of consciousness and probably death from the shock. When beheading was the most common form of execution, the aristocracy had the mercy of the sword, rather than the axe. Again, a single blow. As I said, the scene of Anne Boleyn's beheading in the BBC adaptation of ‘Wolf Hall’ and the subsequent books still haunts me. Hanging too became merciful once hangmen took pride in their jobs, measured and weighed the convicted so their necks would break, a near instantaneous death. Firing squad is equally quick. Probably one of the most barbaric forms of execution is the electric chair, if I remember correctly, invented by a dentist and aren't they vicious (I'm kinda kidding)?
So, having said all that, these people are so evil they deserve to feel some of the pain they've inflicted on the world. An incompetent hangman, so they choke? I've no idea how anyone's supposed to know this, but apparently suffocation is a relatively pleasant death, once you struggling (e.g. drowning). Freezing to death, I can understand because once you stop feeling the cold you become light headed and don't feel any pain. All these deaths are too good for them.
That's beautiful, thank you. Did you know that the put on puppet shows with the beheaded corpses during the French Revolution, using their bodies like marionettes? So macabre. The scene of Anne Boleyn's beheading in the BBC series of ‘Wolf Hall’ and the subsequent books still haunts me. It was so brutal but had a moment of tenderness that made it all the more horrifying: the executioner makes a noise to make the blindfolded Anne look to one side, tip-toes to the other and swings. Aristocracy had merciful deaths, beheading by sword. The more normal blunt axe often took half a dozen chops. The guillotine was quick, unerring and merciful. You'd remain conscious for a few seconds, but hanging? Before hangmen measured and weighed their victims to make sure they broke their necks it was the most agonizing and undignified death. Victims often ejaculated, a last desperate attempt to spread their seed. It's so brutal and ugly and vicious. We might think we live in ugly and horrible times, but it's nothing compared to how cruel we were in the 16ᵗʰ century. People used to watch executive for entertainment, still did at Tyburn into last century. Public executive became rarer, but WTF? How could anyone take pleasure in another's painful death? Justice? There but for the grace of God? I don't buy any of it.
There is no limit to the depravity, cruelty and barbarity we can imagine and, worse, enact, but there's also no limit to the beauty we can invent. We've come a long, long way, maybe not far enough, but we are going in the right direction.
Thank you, Nicholas! 🤗 I think that in the past there were very few distractions for the large mass of poor people, so many would attend any sort of event, however gruesome, in order to break the boredom of their days. Even gladiators were also delivering a spectacle of death. I’m glad the days we live in are somewhat easier on the eye, although I understand there is still savagery going on in some ISIS camps where they decapitate people.
Humans are only as good as their surroundings, which is why we study crowd psychology. Give someone a very low reference point, such as a crappy president with low morals, and a large part of the population, especially those at the left side of the bell curve in IQ and EQ, will tend to follow that example. Why should they do their best and behave in a mannered way if even the most powerful man in the world doesn’t?
I agree with you in principal. But, there is no "good" way to punish or prevent the desecration of the laws that protect the people from mass murder, starvation, and unlimited cruelty.
Death is too good for the greedy MFers.
THANK YOU! You are saying the same message I have been screaming about for many years, Nicole.
The corruption and stark inequality is coming to a head in America. The people have to WAKE UP soon, or we peasants will have no choice but to take our revenge.
The Oli's and their lackeys are past their limits.
The Constitution specifies the death penalty in cases of TREASON!
Thank you, Kevin! 🙌
Good one, Nicole.
Thank you, Ted!
I can't tell you why, but as a boy, I was fascinated by Robespierre 😁! Great piece, have a good night, Nicole!
Thank you, Nick! Nighty night!
True words. No hiding.
What struck me most here is the line “Power here has forgotten / It is housed in meat.” It establishes the central idea with brutal economy: institutions may imagine themselves as permanent and abstract, but ultimately power is exercised by—and over—mortal human beings.
The imagery that follows is relentless. “Ku Klux hoods laundered / Into uniforms and statutes” is particularly sharp because of that word laundered—the suggestion that something recognisable can be cleaned, renamed, institutionalised, and thereby made to appear legitimate without necessarily changing what lies beneath it.
I also appreciated the tension in “I do not praise the cutting.” It prevents the guillotine from becoming merely a celebration of violence. Instead, it becomes a symbol of consequence—the historical knowledge that power is never quite as untouchable as it persuades itself it is.
I write about politics and power at The Reflective State, often through satire rather than poetry, so this was fascinating to encounter through such a different lens. Happily subscribing. If curiosity ever brings you my way, I'd genuinely love to hear what you thin
Thank you, Siddhartha!
💯
If you have never listened to Steppenwolf's Monster/Suicide/America, a song they wrote in 1969. You need to. You can see how much we have slipped back into the abyss.
Thank you, Ed. Nothing much changed but colors.
While we bullied, stole and bought our a homeland
We began the slaughter of the red man
Efing grate ful
Thank you, Michelle!
There are images in this that will stay with me for a long time. "Power is housed in meat" is such an arresting opening. Powerful writing.
Sadly, we are seeing history repeating itself again.
“Moving is resisting.
Existing is resisting.
Breathing transforms the waveform
Into probable cause.”
Worse than any horror I could create 😔
Powerful work.
👏👏👏 Subscribed. Thank you 4 this. Needs to be said.
I've been thinking about the guillotine quite a bit over the last few months, and apparently you have been too.
“The wealthy funding their tax cuts on the backs of the American people is a pretty brazen act against the peasantry. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that the American people must face their Marie Antoinette moment sooner than later, and since President Trump just authorized federal firing squads, I believe we should go one step farther and add the guillotine as a punishment remedy, reserved solely for the Epstein class.”
—SpudLink, May 4, 2026
Excuse the late reply, I've only just seen your comment. I don't you read mine, but the guillotine was a rather merciful death: a single cut, no more than a few seconds of consciousness and probably death from the shock. When beheading was the most common form of execution, the aristocracy had the mercy of the sword, rather than the axe. Again, a single blow. As I said, the scene of Anne Boleyn's beheading in the BBC adaptation of ‘Wolf Hall’ and the subsequent books still haunts me. Hanging too became merciful once hangmen took pride in their jobs, measured and weighed the convicted so their necks would break, a near instantaneous death. Firing squad is equally quick. Probably one of the most barbaric forms of execution is the electric chair, if I remember correctly, invented by a dentist and aren't they vicious (I'm kinda kidding)?
So, having said all that, these people are so evil they deserve to feel some of the pain they've inflicted on the world. An incompetent hangman, so they choke? I've no idea how anyone's supposed to know this, but apparently suffocation is a relatively pleasant death, once you struggling (e.g. drowning). Freezing to death, I can understand because once you stop feeling the cold you become light headed and don't feel any pain. All these deaths are too good for them.
Seems kinda soft on the Jacobins.