The Last Hangman of Old Route

Today I bid farewell to my grim calling
My last dance with the gallows as the hangman of Old Route
Times have changed, and the noose can’t bear the weight
Of judgment no more

The morning sun peeks over the horizon,
A melancholic glow cast upon the old stone walls
I've stood here and witnessed the fall of many souls,
Their lives cut short by the rope.

I dress in somber silence
My hands tremble as I don my leather gloves
They’ve held the fate of countless lives, and now
Fate shakes them

Hood goes on, I put it on for them
Criminal or not, the last face they should see
Shouldn’t be of one that doesn’t even care
Their final thought shouldn’t be of me

Used to be I put it on for me
I didn’t want the crowd to recognize a face
With no expression, no emotion, just another mask
Underneath the first

I make my way to the gallows
An obsolete monument to death as of today
A crowd awaits with curiosity
To watch my last working day

As I ascend the gallows,
The crowd falls silent, their eyes fixed upon
The man whose livelihood n’ profession is reviled
Fuck you all, avert your eyes

Their judgment and their pity
Spare your compassion for the damned who’s ‘bout to die
The man of the hour is brought before me
Dead man walking by

"Hood or not?" I ask him
"No hood," he says. He wants to face the crowd
I stare him down, a braver man than I
Brave, but I am still alive

While they read his long list of crimes
I secure the noose around his neck with trembling hands
He looks at me with compassionate eyes,
He too has taken lives

Facing him, I lift my hood
A nod of shared experience before I cover up
In gesture of good faith I give the rope some slack
and tighten the noose behind his back

"I was defending my family!"
So said the murderer as his last and final words
I pull the lever. A clean drop, and a snap
Evidence of quick and painless death

Today marks the end of an era
But hopefully the start of something better, something new
Now comes the time to learn a different craft
For the hangman is no more

The hangman is no more

---

Song based on the first person account of the last hangman in the Freelands. Following the heavy death tolls of The End, a lot of thought went into the philosophical aspects of life and death. Lawmakers around the world sought to ease the suffering of the damned, and executions by hanging were now considered inhumane. Instant deaths were the latest fashion, firing squads and decapitations replaced the rope. The hangman would have to learn the ways of the blade, or find work elsewhere.