J.T. Price

Leisler is Gone

Hung by the neck, his still breathing,
throat severed by sword.
This is how they treat heroes, those who dare to be great 
“Hip Hip Huzzay,” once they had cried,
for William and Mary were newly king and queen across the Atlantic. 
And so followed Leisler, to the helm of our great state, 
self declared, as so many of us are. 
When has New York not been the premier venue for self declaration?
Come to the city and declare yourself something new. 
Leisler was among the first 
and we recount here what reward he received for his efforts.
It was a seizure of power he made in the new King and Queens’ names, 
and their names only. 
Not his own, never his own. 
Of course, the bastards in Albany held out from recognizing his governance, 
Albany always has its own agenda. 
But, they saw what happened in Schenectady, 
the burning,
the razing,
and so it was that fear of outsiders made them cleave to the nearest leader,
the sneaking cowards, then betray him at the first opportunity. 
Conspiracy makers and whisperers everyone
plying the newly arrived governor sent by William and Mary with wine. 
And so, 
the new governor signed Leisler’s death warrant, 
”to be hanged by the neck and
being alive, his body to be cut down to earth 
and his bowels taken out, and his being alive 
burned before the faces 
of those 
gathered to see
and to hear.” 
Such fine embrace we give our self-made. 
New York Town shall never again be what it was, 
what it might have been, 
since Leisler
is gone.