Ol' Salem

They stil stand
lost, bewildered,
it seems in this new age.
The gallows
where innocents hanged.
Why?
Because they were different.

Ol' Salem--
I remember it well,
the lake. . .
and the noose. . .
and the people
so filled with hatred.

Do things our way
--or die
for being a witch.
Strangers are guilty,
the courts ruled.

Dunk them in water.
If they die, then they're not witches,
a terrible mistake.

If they live, they're witches.
Let's give them a choice--
burning
or
hanging.

Either way they're dead and gone,
these strange folks. . . so different.

Ol' Salem,
they didn't care.
They protected themselves. . .
from change,
from maturing.
The innocent dies
in ol' Salem
on shadowy gallows.

They still stand--
even today--
in ol' Salem.
The hatred and fears
of the differences
in people. . .
a perpetual legacy
from ol' Salem. . .

Paul Vernon Deffendall
January 19, 1992


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