Washington’s lights can be seen all around,
From street to street, town to town, and through the world.

Its people moved with seeming grace and ease;
Washington’s reach could be felt all around,
And his memory was sacred and bound

To the freedom of all men God had made.
Washington’s people moved with grace and ease
And its magnetic pull brought tons around;
Promises of prosperity—the calling sound.

Washington’s memory—sacred and bound,
Tethered to freedom of the men God made—
Its grand sights can be seen from all around,
And its people moved with stoic-like ease.
Echoes of prosperity its bouncing sound.

Washington’s cherry blossoms are bleeding red,
While its memory mesmerizes the bound
Wired to the free dumb—the men God forbade—
Washington’s noose chokeholds everyone around
And its subjects stayed with an awful unease.
The banshee shrieks of the free dumb shredding sound.

“Let freedom ring in a patriotic sound”—
The damned cherry blossoms are oozing red—
“Let its memory draw you—to it be bound.”
Chained are the free dumb—the ones Washington stayed—
And their image haunts with such unease,
The howling cries of freedom a lost sound.
Washington’s barbed-wire noose strangles all around

Into submission, carrying out its will—
“Let’s sing ‘free dumb’ in a patriotic sound”—
“Let its memory control you—to it be bound.”
Stained are the free dumb—they’re Washington’s spayed—
And their menace looms with such unease;
Their howling cries for freedom a horrid sound—
And their jail cell lights paid for by all around—
Heard street to street, town to town, and through the world.

POET’S NOTE:
This is the second part of Season 2 in my series, Devilishly Dreadful.

For Macabre Monday. Inspired by George W. M. Reynolds’s The Mysteries of London, its infamous Resurrection Man, and its entangled worlds of respectable power and criminal darkness, this poem relocates the mystery to modern Washington. Written in my original Revelatory Cascade form, its repeated lines shift as the poem expands through marble monuments, inherited memory, and the promises made in freedom’s name.

© 2026 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.

Next Macabre Monday

Devilishly Dreadful:

Saint Sorebones

Coming Macabre Monday, September 28, 2026

© 2026 Tristan Robert Lange. All rights reserved.