The Pacifist

In Ben’s blood there coursed the fire of the Celt, A strain of the strong Saxon thew; From his eyes shot a glint of a son of the South―― An American type through and through. A dreamer, daredevil, and care free, they say, Who lived in the far remote past,―― An unpractical man and careless forsooth; Inclined as a youth to be fast. He’d shot up the town and sowed some wild oats, And once on a time rolled the dice, But heart like an ox and muscled like steel; A dreamer? Yes, without price. He filled no great niche in the town where he lived, Was never considered worth while. The pacifist craft rolled their eyes to the sky And mentioned his name with a smile, An odious smile, twixt a smirk and a grin, A smile that was snaky and sly. They’d ne’er draw a sword nor strike with a club, But could damn with the lift of an eye. The tocsin of war sounds at last in the land, And threatened invasion seemed near. The hand of the patriot went to the sword; The pacifist muttered in fear; He muttered, then sold to the Government, ground Down hard by the burden of Thor, Life’s veriest needs at prohibitive rates; Conscription did curse and abhor. Ben rode to the front with the coming of strife Where the roar of the guns rose and fell; Was killed while he strove for democracy’s cause As he fought like a demon of hell. They builded a shaft in the town of his birth To the rascally skin and the beat Who’d tricked Uncle Sam by short-changing of food, A lynx-eyed and oily old cheat Who yapped about honesty, horrors of war, Contributed largely of speech And words of advice to the youth thereabouts―― His pacifist face was a ‘screech’, Ben hadn’t a shaft where his forefathers slept Nor niche in the Chancel of Fame; No tablet recited the list of his deeds, Nor blazoned the worth of his name. He died as men do who answer the call With boots on and pierced to the heart; He died and those lived who, sneering at him, Sucked the people’s blood dry in the mart; Conniving at profit, a pacifist brood, Not unwilling a country to sell; Iniquitous, plotting and pandering to pelf―― The opal-eyed vampires of hell!