Considerations for Building Your Own Guillotine

A poem, for what it's worth

I can’t imagine why I one day searched up, “how to build a guillotine” … … … … But it turns out there’s a wealth of information available there for those interested.

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Considerations for Building Your Own Guillotine

What’s essential to get right
is the ratio between height
and weight to ensure the blade
attains enough velocity
to be humane, lest it get stuck
part way through the neck.
Brand recognition, though,
is also key, prominent logos
and flags, race car decals
like Amazon, Monsanto, Apple,
Nestlé, Dupont, Disney, Tesla,
United Health, Exxon, Walmart,
News-Corp, Hungary, Russia,
Israel, America. Also, pay
homage. Etch the blade
with names, carve the wood
like bones, engrave images
of Palestinian children, Black
slaves, missing Indigenous
women, African lithium miners,
migrant babies in cages, Asian
forced-labor corpses, Trans
youth dead on the toilet
floors of a world that somehow
cares more about genitalia
than humanity. Listen, I’m aware
that only the first six lines
here approach what’s called
decency, so my advice is to skip
that part and just get the job done.