SPEECH FROM A FORTHCOMING PLAT
23
do hereby pronounce and decree that hereby you shall be punished
for said crime or crimes according to that unwritten law which,
according to all rightthinking people, governs the actions of all
rightthinking people;
namely and to wit,
that you shall have your right eye suitably excised with a very dull
penknife, and placed in your mouth which has previously been
opened with a hatchet;
that you shall be soaked with gasoline,
hanged with a rope,
lighted with a match,
cut down while you are alive,
slit up the middle by good women,
stamped on by little children,
and made to kiss the flag by strong men.
Finally: it is the irrevocable verdict of this impeccable court, in due
session assembled, that your organ of generation, having been
suitably tinged and bedewed with the liquid and solid excre-
ment of all lawabiding citizens in general and of all patriotic
persons in particular, shall be forcefully proffered to your own
mother, who shall immediately and joyfully eat thereof under
penalty of death.
In Hoke signo:
God save the people From the people!
God save All of the people for Some of the people!
God save Some of the people All of the time, and all of the people
will take care of themselves.
AMEN.
E. E.
CUMMINGS
