The Kentucky Hangnail Poem by Randy McClave

I wrote this poem from a story that was told to me by my grandparents as was told unto them by their grandparents. The most protective force that a person could ever wear upon their neck or hang upon the wall of their home, it is the Kentucky Hangnail.
There are just two pieces to the Kentucky Hangnail, and when those two pieces are joined together, they attract and collect and then remove the bad and negative and sometimes evil energy and forces that we come in contact daily. Whether it be evil or sadness or a form of depression that surrounds us which sometimes controls and binds us. The Kentucky Hangnail will capture it, and then it will dispose of it.

1) The nail that is used to attract the forces of negativity/ evil is made of iron, iron from the belly of the earth. The iron that was used to create the nail which is a sealant, it is the force that drives downwards and adheres to whatever substances that it comes in contact with. The tip of the nail is where the absorbed energy has been collected and then that force is driven downward and trapped away into the belly of the earth.
2) The noose - aka the hangman's noose is used at the head of the nail, it is used to stop and strangle out any and all of the negative energy that the nail has collected. The noose is of 13 wraps/loops as though pertaining to the 13 steps of the gallows where life ends, each wrap is always stronger than the next.

According to my grandparents they used the Kentucky Hangnail in their home and also in their barn, and sometimes they even carried it in their pocket or wore it around their neck. Who told their grandparents about it, I don't know, it might had been their own design and concept and belief, or maybe it was by higher powers.

• Nailing an iron horseshoe to a door was said to repel evil spirits or later, to bring good luck. (maybe that's the idea or the belief of the iron nail, easier to carry around) .
• Surrounding a cemetery with an iron fence was thought to contain the souls of the dead.
• Burying an iron knife under the entrance to one's home was alleged to keep witches from entering.

This has been the short and narrative story of (our) Kentucky Hangnail, and also that of my family and their families belief in it, and also its use to protect and keep evil away from them and their loved ones.

Randy L. McClave