"Hymn of the War Kings" from Emma Goldman's Mother Earth Magazine

Damn, those anarchists were good. Emma Goldman is featured on PBS' The American Experience Monday at 9pm.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/goldman/sfeature/sf_motherearth_txt_03.html

HYMN OF THE WAR KINGS

God of destruction, ruin, death,
Keep and attend us, helpmate be;
Grant that we blast with fiery breath
Our brother's men on land and sea;
Let us at last be set on high,
Kings over lands where poor fools bled!
Nor empty-handed do we cry --
Our offerings will be the dead.

Help the poor conscripts that we send
Into the battle's seething hell
To carve a path we may ascend.
What if they die then? It is well --
Their mangled corpses on the field
Will be for Thee our harvesting.
Will it not be a wholesome yield,
God of the battles, that we bring?

What is it, Lord, to Thee and us,
If famine stalk and starved mouths cry;
What is it, Lord, to Thee and us,
If families of these driven die;
If it so be that by such wrack
Thou hast Thy bleeding sacrifice?
If it so be that by such wrack
We are exalted in our eyes?

God of starvation, rapine, lust,
Grim-visaged Lord of all things dire,
With victory our arms intrust,
And we will kindle Thee a fire!
The smoke of it shall sullen rise,
Its incense shall be sweet to Thee,
Its flame shall lick Thy greasy skies--
Yea, ruined earth is fair to see!
-- Gerald B. Breitigam.

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