The Gallows By Katja Stroke-adolphe

The G allow s (based on the novella “ The Captain’s Daughter” ) By Katja Stroke-Adolphe


 The
traitor
who
hanged
his
traitors,
 Bespattered
by
blood
of
the
innocent
victims
of
his
fate,
 Awaiting
in
his
execution
theirs,
 His
mercy
forgotten,
 But
his
terror
remembered
in
the
hanging
limbs
of
death,
 Hanging
still
on
the
frosty
mist
of
the
gallows.

 Captain
Mironov,

 His
body
lifeless,
 Dangling
from
the
rope
from
which
I
did
escape.
 His
brave
and
true
defiance
 Of
defiance
to
his
noble
ruler,
 Proved
an
end
I
sorrow,
 And
for
the
villain
to
perhaps
regret
 Among
the
woeful
acts
of
death

 Thrown
by
his
self‐declared
reign,

 Too
much
to
count,
too
many
to
repay.
 A
life
of
death,
a
saber
at
the
captain’s
wife’s
head.
 A
word
too
quick
of
mind
in
power
of
injustice.
 All
faithful
servants
of
our
cause,
 To
death
were
hanged
without
a
pause.
 Declared
but
not
undeclared
like
mine
 So
near
and
yet
so
far

 By
one
hare‐skin
coat
 For
the
villain
to
remember.

 His
mercy
given
by
the
mood,
 But
death
like
a
serpent
clung
to
doom,

 My
darling
orphaned.

 Love
a
wave
to
sorrow’s
hand,
 The
captain’s
daughter
by
my
love
and
Shvabrin’s
 Fated
by
our
love,
his
in
poisoned
jealousy,
 To
fight
a
duel
by
river’s
frost
of
pain
in
hate,
 To
push
him
to
the
river’s
drowning
edge
 But
unedged
by
a
voice,
my
servant
calling
me,
 His
did
plunge
me
into
darkness
 Not
sleep
but
not
awake

 Like
death
a
heavy
shadow
in
a
fallen
grave
 But
to
my
wake,
an
angel
bright
was
my
captain’s
daughter,
 Her
hand
a
gentle
rose
of
life,

 Ending
my
unending
strife,
 A
love
unmatchable
made
a
match
 But
fortune
unfortunate
parted

 By
a
letter
of
unconsent.


 My
father,
cool
to
heart,


A
love
to
passing
fancy,
 Consented
not
to
my
most
vigorous
plea,
 By
other
mouth
heard
of
the
duel
 And
plunged
misery
 On
me
by
letter’s
words.

 My
blazing
love
burned
fire
of
despair,

 My
love
avoiding
me,

 My
heart
trapped
in
a
lion’s
lair,

 I
trapped
myself
within
my
grief,

 My
life
abandoned
by
abandoned
pain
 Of
love
ungranted
inside
or
underneath,

 The
hope,

 The
life
unlifed.

 The
pretender
on
a
lying
throne
 Of
lying
to
death
of
pain
invasion.
 The
gallows
illuminated
by
doom
 In
doomed
by
doomed
despair.

 The
captain’s
daughter
hidden
 But
unhidden
yet
recovered
by
a
lie,
 My
love
not
safe
in
safety.

 The
pretender
let
me
go
 But
as
he
awaits
his
death
by
execution
 I
am
tried
for
helping
him.

 The
traitor
counts
the
sunrises
in
wait
for
death,
 As
I
sit
in
this
prison
in
dark
pain,
 To
save
myself
I’d
need
to
tell
the
truth,
 To
tell
the
truth
I’d
need
to
mention
the
captain’s
daughter.

 As
the
traitor
tries
to
count
his
victims
dead,

 I
wrestle
to
protect
my
love
and
unprotect
myself.
 Now
free
am
I
by
her
most
steady
word.

 To
watch
the
traitor
walk
to
the
rope,
 Where
he
will
face
his
victim’s
doom.
 His
eyes
connect
to
mine
for
but
a
moment,

 His
eyes
already
dead
of
light.
 The
rope
pulled
by
the
executioner’s
trembling
hand,
 Ending
the
life
of
a
man
who
ended
so
many
lives.

 Killing
a
traitor
who
killed
so
many
of
his
traitors.
 Hanged
from
the
gallows
of
his
victims.

 The
man
who
was
so
merciful
to
me,

 The
man
on
whom
no
mercy
was
shown,

 The
man
who
hanged
my
darling’s
parents,

 The
man
who
now
hung
from
their
gallows, That
man,
 Pugachev,

 The
pretender,
 The
traitor,
 And
the
self
declared
sovereign,
 Is
dead.