Eugene Gordon, "The Pacifist" (1930)
(For J.H.S.)
Scorn me for a coward,---
! will not kill!
My hands are at my sides,---
My hands are bare
Of gun or bayonet.
I will not kill!
With the sharpened blades of
My grimy thumbs
I will not gouge your eyes
(Big with pleading)
Out of your bloodless face.
There is no hate
Nor love of you; there is
Alive in me
No anger nor contempt.
You are to me
No more nor less than men
Of other times
I neither knew nor cared
To know,---such men
As muttered shibboleths
They learned by heart,---
Platitudes concerning
Glory in death.
I shall be deaf to men
In swivel chairs
Who command me to hate
And kill strangers.
Rather I'll lift my palm
In peace to men.
"Armed with your bayonets,
Go forth and slay,"
They cry. "Run their guts through
With keen sabres;
Prick out their starting eyes
With bayonets.
"GoI Nor temporize nor
Stoop to tricks
Of reason, thus to cool
Your glorious
Passion of blinded hate.
God fights with us."
I am no patriot,
No worshipper
Of ftags, no prater of
Stark platitudes
Mouthed by uncounted fools.
I WILL NOT KILL!
Published in Saturday Evening Quill, 1930