comes now
the poet
to tell the tale
of one
theodore sedgwick
federalist
5th speaker of the house of representatives
jurist
senator
massachusetts potentate
judicially supreme
yale dropout
who served
in the continental army
exploring the willling wilds of oh canada
and battling the white plains
precedent setting
lawyer to brom and bett
who won the right to call themselves
Freeman
when he argued their freedom suit
based upon
the state constitutions 1780 claim
all men are born free and equal
patriarch
with control issues
that extended into the
hereafter
dear judge sedgwick had
a familial plan
for a cemetery plot like no other
our founding father
theodore is
buried in the
center
of what cemeterians call
the laughing stock
of the east coast
the sedgwick pie
of stockbridge, massachusetts
a great middling monolith stands
above him
surrounded by the headstones of
his wives
children
nieces
nephews
in laws
pets
servants
and siblings
all
facing in toward him
in concentric circles
instead of burial
facing east
toward the rising sun
his after life logic
being
when the
resurrection comes
and
the faithful rise from their graves
on judgement day
looking upon jerusalem
the sedgwick clan
would only
have to endure
looking…
upon
other
sedgwicks
justitia omnibus