The Death of Free Speech
The Death of Free Speech
By Clint Margrave
It was a closed casket.
Not the urn of ashes
everyone expected.
No cause was reported.
No autopsy.
Nothing mentioned on television.
No official statement
from the government.
No obituary.
Nobody sent flowers.
Or gave a eulogy.
A few mourners stood,
hands over their mouths.
But nobody said they were sorry.
Or offered their condolences.
Nobody said a thing.
Clint Margrave is the author of Salute the Wreckage (2016) and The Early Death of Men (2012), both published by NYQ Books. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Threepenny Review, New York Quarterly, The Writer’s Almanac, Rattle, Cimarron Review, Verse Daily, The American Journal of Poetry, Word Riot, and Ambit (UK), among others. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.