| THOU weapon that does drink the blood
Of Liberty, I hate! I long to see the hour come when men Will act, will shake the tyrant's throne Until it trembles at its base, And then uproot its deepest stone From out its state. That fatal Anaconda drinks Our brightest blood And makes us serfs, worse than the slave, Low, menial, poor, who starving begs The right to labor for a crust To lift his fainting soul___now dregs Of briny flood. To toil is honorable and good; All love to toil. But oh, to beg the right or chance To earn a livelihood is crime Against humanity and God___ He who ordained throughout all time Man for the soil. What treason e'er could institute A tyrant's throne? A throne of mighty width and power, Whose coffers fill from honest hands Of toil___the sacred yields it brings___ Which all our broad and fertile lands Have amply borne. Corruption lurks within the halls Where laws are made. Where wealth does build her castled throne, And makes impregnable its walls; She holds beneath her charmed spell Of glittering power, he whom she calls___ Despite his grade. And thus within her spacious vaults Great cords of gold She piles, while feeding on our toil; Filching those rights of world renown Which marked us Freedom's sons, and gave To every man a lordly crown, Both young and old. Hate, ye freemen, hate the yoke Which presses down Upon your necks, submissive to The laws your countrymen have made; Who, making laws, strong chains have forged To shackle Liberty___here fades Our high renown. __James A. DeMoss |
Kansas Zephyrs
James A. DeMoss
(Thayer, Kansas: ___. 1892)
Pages 40-41
Visit the Home Page for Kansas