Blood and Wine
(A certain little renegade of the Revolution chants a hymn of praise to his erstwhile enemy.)
Behold! The helots of the land
Are cowed beneath thy iron fist;
They are too dumb to understand—
Too tame and spineless to resist.
Victorious one! Against thy gains
These chattels cannot, dare not rise;
Stifle the thought within their brains
And rule... with bayonets and lies.
So may thy sons, with greed uncurbed,
Their children’s children rule again;
Aye, rule with iron, undisturbed,
The all-prolific sons of men.
What matters that ten million died
To give thy lust a dwelling place?
Does not thy Terror set aside
The ancient freedom of the race?
What matters that the peasant’s plow
Bites at a soil baptised with red?
Are not thy bloody dollars now
More myriad than the myriad dead?
That in charred cities, wan with pain,
War-desolated mothers live,
While lips of babies tug in vain
At breasts that have no milk to give?
Or that beneath thy battered walls,
Cursed with the eloquence of hell,
Black Want to red Rebellion calls...?
Heed not, I tell thee all is well!
Heed not! Have vine-clad maidens sing
And serve thee scented wine and gore;
Laugh! Glut thyself to vomiting,
And hiccough, screaming still for more.
What of the Men against the gate,
Black-massed and sullen, gaunt and lean...
Like thee they crave one thing to hate.
Be glad... and whet thy guillotine!