Henry Lee Moon, "The Gods of the Persecuted" (1928)
By Henry Lee Moon
The persecuted make obeisance to many gods,
Many unanswering gods—
Gods who turn deaf ears
To the prayers of the earth’s disinherited,
Who hear not the mumbled plaints of voiceless pariahs
Abased at the feet of the gods of their despoilers.
Not for dumb driven diggers of ditches,
Not for dust-choked pickers of cotton,
Nor straining loaders of carriers,
Not for the fettered multitudes
That worship at their shrines
Do the gods perform their miracles.
Seeking balms for their sores
The persecuted receive but the sting of irritants;
Seeking contentment, but the bitterness of denial.
With wounds recrudescent,
With minds uncontent
They turn yet
To the gods of the privileged.
And the gods?
In their cloistered sanctuaries
The worshipped stare with poker faces
At the antics of the dust.
The gods of the persecuted are many
But unanswering.
Published in The Crisis, December 1928