Through the field

[R.C. KITCHENS]

Edit 1

There was a negro who stole a chicken
He had a trial and was found guilty
"let me be freed" he said as he was
taken out of the courthouse.
I remember it well,
The crowd of folk circling him while he put his hands up to
shield his face from spit and stones.

He was made to walk about a mile and a half
while all the town's citizens followed behind him

it was

through the field,
past the briers and blackberry bushes,
down where the pines overtake the landscape,
by a pond where the stench of still water lingers in
the breeze.

where

a wooden structure stands about eleven feet high.
three eight by twelve feet railroad tie's make the
device.

The thick hemp rope directly in the center of the
beam above head, lap'd over a few times and tied
off, the noose hanging.

There

was a old beaten stool made of oak, propped
against the side of one tie.

Negro made it to the red dirt just under the structure

The sun was blazing downward on the field,
men and women start heckling the thief
some dance around the structure, hollering.

The sound of madness is echoing through the pines,
Negro man stands on the stool with the rope around
his neck as several men go to kick it out from under him.

through the field,
past the briers and blackberry bushes,
down where the pines overtake the landscape,
by a pond where the stench of still water lingers in
the breeze.





original

through the field, past the briers and blackberry bushes
down where the pines overtook the landscape,
by a pond where the stench of still water lingered in
the breeze,

a wooden structure stood about eleven feet high.
three eight by twelve foot railroad tie's made the
device, two ties about twelve feet apart and one
resting on top of them,

The thick hemp rope directly in the center of the
beam above head, lap'd over a few times and tied
off, the noose hanging two foot downward

There was a old beaten stool made of oak propped
against the side of one tie,

The sun was blazing in the distance as the voices
grew louder with there heckling,

Some men were so enthusiastic, they danced around
the structure, hollering. The hollering was as a language
of its own, echoing through the pines and terrain

The man caught, he was a negro who stole a chicken.
Earlier that day He had a trial and was found guilty,
he had plead to those few around the courthouse
"let me be freed" he said as he was being taken out
as men began to shout, circling him while he waved
his shackled hands upward in prayer

The breeze brought about the stagnant water
as they had him stand on the stool
they placed the rope around his shivering body
he screamed out "I don't want to die."

It took about thirty minutes to bring that negro down
to this wasteland and as they kicked the stool out
from his feet, twenty minutes to hang him dead