The Saga Of A Convict Lass Poem by Terence George Craddock (Spectral Images and Images Of Light)

Such a nice girl
funny she never married.
Such a nice girl
money purchases only pearls.
Wisdom Sentimentality Sincerity.
Are free
inflating hearts that can be
above treacherous currents
embroiled
in bitter misty
dark green sea.

Past waves sucked out marrow
chilling chipped raw bones
stripping striped
flayed flesh.
Balsam rubbed in hardens
shuddering residual resistance.
As gashed groaning flesh
rigidly resists
handfuls of coarse salt.
Raked across weeping wounds
scouraged bitterly.

Lashes tongue flickering frequent
constant incriminations
falling relentlessly.
Cat-o’-nine-tails
allows neither
respite nor escape.
Killing by inches
held within rigged triangles
warranted flogging.
Canary century lashing ceremony
preceding gallows-tree.

Smelling salts sympathy denial Governor ordered
bridled regress deriving unconsciousness.
Induces no reverence
for suppurate righteous system.
Criminal tendencies mild discipline
sought to correct. Countless cruel blows
execute swinging carcass preliminaries.
While pantomime noosing rope end
round own neck passes for pleasantness.
Before affixing leg-chain
clinking clanking dragging irons.

Leg-bail impediment
affixed at left anklet
limits a woman’s freedom
surged natural running pace.
Fetters confine womanly grip.
Destitution’s free hands hopelessly handcuffed
impedes sentence side-stepped avoidance.
Imposes full furnaced marital crime.
Plead belly cheats hangman’s release
in exchange Wifely Newgate a prison keeps.
Until executioner’s enticing hand. Ends deprivation time.


Copyright © Terence George Craddock
Written in October 1995 on the 4.10.1995.
‘The Saga Of A Convict Lass’ is the original template poem for a collage of poems, symbolic of collective convict suffering, yet unique experiences of individuals, during the penal transportation period. See also ‘Penal Transportation: Forgotten Gaelic Slaves’, ‘Money Purchases Only Pearls’, ‘Flogged Upon Rack At Sea’ and ‘Sentenced For The Term Of Her Natural Life’ by Terence George Craddock.