Thrice-Hanged Joe

by John Roche

(From Mo ‘Mo’ Joe: Further Adventures of Joe the Poet, manuscript in progress)

They call him Thrice-Hanged Joe
because, each time, the rope broke
until the sheriff decided to let him live

Joe puts it this way,
When I was up there on the gallows, being Thrice-Hanged,
I suddenly felt the majesty, the glory, of the Eternal Poem

Now he drives his horse-drawn Poetry Wagon
across the Plains
spreading the Gospel of Poetry
and selling mildly addictive elixirs