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May 3, 1946 Willie Francis
- University of Iowa Press
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poems 137 May 3, 1946 Willie Francis Saint Martinsville, Louisiana They brought Louisiana’s only chair in a pick-up from Angola into Saint Martinsville Parish, to the Court House, where a fifteen-year-old colored boy had lain on straw for months. Jailhouse on the second floor: Death kindly took the elevator. Wires were tossed from dynamo to window. Four men setting up the chair passed flasks, dead tired and innocent of amps. They called the priest, and pulled the switch, and thought he’d die. He shook and lurched and gasped—You’re not supposed to breathe! They shut it down, freed him from straps and hood. Then Willie Francis stood up without help and—miracle, miracle—walked back to his cell. ...