Memo to Angels in Search of a Lawyer

So much depends what sort of pin we mean
when we ask how many of you can dance.
A hatpin, for instance might accommodate
more angels than one of those pins one removes
from any new shirt. Then there are collar
pins, tie pins, rolling and bowling pins
and probing sublimely ridiculous
what about lynch pins, whose spelling

is not preferred, we’re told, by dictionary
writers but whose history nonetheless connects
with the expression lynch law, whose origin dates
in turn to the extra-legal depredations
of one Judge Charles Lynch of Virginia (or
maybe his name was William)¹ one judge good
as another when the question is how many of ’em
can dance on a lawbook.




¹ For an account of the many versions of the history
of this expression, see Henry Rhodes, “’Lynch Law’
—An American Community Enigma,” American
Communities 1880-1980.