What use is
Knowing
The mouton has nearly finished climbing.

Clench your fists
Grit your teeth
Gaze into the empty eyes of the heads in the basket

Perhaps you could shout
Some too radical words for the jeering crowd
As the white paint peels from the dry, cracked lunette
And a panorama of empty eyes
Hunger for someone else’s blood

You have time to think
And feel regret
Every time two paths diverged in a wood
You chose the guillotine

The frame shudders at the mouton's climax
What use is
Knowing
The blade is shearing through the air

And once you’ve stopped knowing
It will take another