The Doomed Men’s Message
By Mary Carolyn Davies
(In “The Survey.”)
Three doomed men in the death house write
A word like a torch from their night to my night.
Three doomed men in Sing Sing wait
Through the fading black of the night, a fate
That I made for them, I—
I said “You must die.”
They will die at dawn. But before they go
They write me a word, that I, too, may know.
They sit and write, the three doomed men,
(They three never will write again—)
Three doomed men in Sing Sing write
A word like a torch from their night to my night.
And this is the word: “Are you justified?
We would give our lives for the men who died—
Who died—by our hand. But it would not aid.
And out of two wrongs can a right be made?”
It is thus they plead, the three doomed men—
They three never will plead again.
They must die at dawn. As a brave man faces
The death he fears, they will take their places.
They will smile, perhaps, they will maybe jest.
They will be dust then. Perhaps that’s best;
But even so, what good am I
To say to three other men, “You must die?”
Three doomed men in the death house pray
Forgiveness. And I, do I ever pray?
Three doomed men confess their sin
And die as they watch a day begin.
Jealousy—anger through drink—and they
Go to their death at the break of day!
Jealousy, anger through drink—and I
A free man, walk down the street. Why, why?
Did I scorn them? Well, we are brothers now,
I and the three, or will be soon.
When day blots out this fading moon,
I shall have killed, no matter how,
Then, murderers all, take heed of me!
They killed but one.
When my deed is done,
My hands will be stained with the blood of three!
They sit and write, the three doomed men,
They three never will write again—
But I still shall hear, with fear and dread,
What the three doomed men in Sing Sing said.