Monday, September 2, 2024

For Labor Day


 
Joe Hill wrote on his dying day
"My body? Oh, if I could choose
I would to ashes it reduce
And let the merry breezes blow
My dust to where some flowers grow"
and from this the story spins this way
 
Reduced to ashes as he wanted
but his acolytes by his words undaunted
spread the ashes far and wide
to city streets and countryside
to his native land and Detroit woods 
and burned again and re-collected
and eaten, washed down with ale
Is there never end to this tale
Joe Hill has grown and grown and multiplied
'til six men on a side could not heft the box
that would hold his body, hide and locks
If we believe all the tales in print

even Joe would wonder where he went.

2 comments:

Secondary Roads said...

Thou waxeth eloquent. Thou art a bard.

vanilla said...

Chuck, consider this a ha ha emoji, and thank you.