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.

Composition date is unknown - the above date represents the first publication date.The lyrical form of this poem is unrhyming.14.huskies: tough, strong men.