They came for Abe.
"I hate him" they say, hate him for his Yankee ways".
"Just let us alone to whup the darkies when they need it."
"Or we'll kill yuh for interferin."
And so they tried, at Shiloh and Antietam.
Whitman came to nurse shattered bodies;
Melville to record their passing
And they got him.
"Certitude begets violence" said Justice Holmes.
Bachmann cries for blood.
And now they come for Barack, who has the
Audacity to sit in the Chief magistrates chair
Wearing a brown skin.
I think of eighteen thousand Americans. The ones who die
Early this year for lack of good medical care.
And their wives and little ones,
Lambs on the altar of Free Enterprise
"Your benefits ran out", they say. "not covered by our policy" they say.
The shambling boys in gray gather again, in Peoria and Waxahatchee.
Lock and load. Lock and load.
The eighteen thousand died without a shot.