English poetry

PoetsBiographiesPoems by ThemesRandom Poem
The Rating of PoetsThe Rating of Poems

Poem by Carl Sandburg


Ready to Kill


 TEN minutes now I have been looking at this.
  I have gone by here before and wondered about it.
  This is the bronze memorial of a famous general
  Riding horseback with a flag and a sword and a revolver
    on him.
  I want to smash the whole thing into a pile of junk to be
    hauled away to the scrap yard.
  I put it straight to you,
  After the farmer, the miner, the shop man, the factory
    hand, the fireman and the teamster,
  Have all been remembered with bronze memorials,
  Shaping them on the job and getting all of us
 Something to eat and something to wear,
 When they stack a few silhouettes
     Against the sky
     Here in the park,
 And show the real huskies that are doing the work of
    the world, and feeding people instead of butchering
    them,
 Then maybe I will stand here
 And look easy at this general of the army holding a flag
    in the air,
 And riding like hell on horseback
 Ready to kill anybody that gets in his way,
 Ready to run the red blood and slush the bowels of men
    all over the sweet new grass of the prairie.



Carl Sandburg


Carl Sandburg's other poems:
  1. A Father to His Son
  2. Wars
  3. Jazz Fantasia
  4. Lost
  5. Falltime


Poem to print Print

1570 Views



Last Poems


To Russian version


Ðåéòèíã@Mail.ru

English Poetry. E-mail eng-poetry.ru@yandex.ru