The Noose and a Nickel — A Condemned Man’s Last Accounting

[Morning. The gallows platform. He can see everything from up here — including the sheriff pressing a coin into the hangman's palm…] VERSE 1 I watched 'em pay you from the platform where I stood, The sheriff dug around his vest like nickels don't come good, Like maybe he'd find something less — a button or a dime — But a nickel was the going rate for taking what was mine. I almost laughed out loud up here, I nearly lost my hat, A nickel for a man's last breath — now what you think of that? The mayor's got a pocket watch, the banker's got his rings, And you get five cents, hangman, for the worst of human things. [He squints down at the hangman adjusting the rope.] [Recognizes the slope of those shoulders.] CHORUS The noose and a nickel — that's what this town pays, For the dirty work of dying at the end of borrowed days. Two men on this scaffold neither one of us chose — The noose and a nickel... Lord, that's all she knows. [The coin catches morning light.] [The condemned man watches it disappear into the hangman's coat pocket.] THE NICKEL SPEAKS [— a coin's testimony —] I've been a soldier's lucky charm, A widow's last for bread. I've bought a child a peppermint, I've kept a drunk man fed. I've crossed three rivers, fifteen hands, From Denver to this hell — And now I'm payment for a death I never asked to tell. [The condemned man looks at the hangman's face and something moves behind his eyes…] VERSE 2 I know you, friend. Don't look away. The Dusty Rose. Last fall. You nursed a bourbon, I nursed mine, backs against the wall. We never spoke a single word but nodded like men do — Two strangers in a common dark who somehow always knew That towns like this use men like us and call it something clean, They call it law, they call it God, they call it in between. But here we stand on either end of seventeen feet of rope, Both of us got paid about the same in dignity and hope. [His voice drops.] [The sardonic edge begins to crack.] CHORUS The noose and a nickel — that's what this town pays, For the dirty work of dying at the end of borrowed days. Two men on this scaffold neither one of us chose — The noose and a nickel... Lord, that's all she knows. [He reaches into his shirt pocket with bound hands — somehow, barely — and places something on the platform rail.] VERSE 3 I left you something on the rail there, Beneath my right hand where it lay. Not much — just what they let me keep — One coin to mark the day. Not for the rope. Not for the drop. For the nod across the bar — The only man who saw me whole From a reasonable distance far. [His voice is barely above a whisper now.] [The sardonic man is completely gone.] Spend it on something useless, friend. Don't give this town the satisfaction Of one more nickel well spent. FINAL CHORUS [— slower, nearly spoken] The noose and a nickel — that's what this town pays, For the dirty work of dying at the end of borrowed days. Two men on this scaffold neither one of us chose — The noose and a nickel... [The trap drops.] [Silence.] [Wind.] [The hangman stands alone on the platform.] [He walks to the rail.] [Looks down at the coin.] [Picks it up.] [Turns it over once in his fingers.] [Pockets it next to the other one.] [Looks out at the empty street.] THE HANGMAN: "See you at the Dusty Rose."