Category: Poems

The guy who brought the small moustache
To general disfavor
No friend of mine is, nor do I
Defend his noisome flavor;

But, just the same, I think that he
Does represent exactly
A side of man that most of us
Pass’over matter-of-factly!

The evil Hitler represents–
We all have helped inspire it:
We assisted with the masterpiecei
We really should ADMIRE IT!

“Success at any price at all”‘
Has been our Yankee by-word,
Instead of that old Golden Rule,
Which might’ve turned us sky-ward.

We lived our selfish lives and laughed
At staid, religious worker;
We made a fetish of the bad,
The chiseler, and the shirker;

That might is right is never right
Is some thing we’re still learning.
Why curse “Der Fuehrer” when we find
our own thoughts evil yearning?

He pulled a fast one we’ve all tried
At one time or another:
If “nerve” you most admire in man,
Give Hitler credit, brother!

Remember “0ne-way” Corrigan,
Who made the rules to suit him?
He thought him cute to break the laws–
Yet no one said, “Let’s shoot him!”

Napoleon made the History books;
A hero, Alexander:
They burned and murdered, yet no one
Their honored names shall slander.

Look at the way we raise our kids:
Instead of stern repression,
It’s “Sit on JUNIOR? 0, My, no–
And spoil his SELF-EXPRESSION?

To just outdo the other guy,
Regardless how it hurt him–
But act that way we can’ t without
We spiritually desert him.

Just GET AHEAD, and hang the rules!
–As long as we are winning–
But cheating wrongs our fellow man,
Which makes it truly sinning.

To greed; and sin, and selfishness
In US–now, have we ever
Made really worth-while effort to
Purge ourselves first?; No, never!

To curb our avarice and grab
We very seldom bust us,
But squawk about that “other guy’s”–
Now, can we call that “Justice”?

The hate. the greed, the wrath, the spite,
That we let live about us
Prepare the way for Mars’ dark leer-
(Wars can’t be fought without us!)

For admire we do in other men–
With woeful lack of seeing–
The self-same things we do decry
In Hitler’s wretched being.

And all of which adds up to this:
War’s face shall indiscreetly
Smirk and leer ’til EACH of US
Be purged of Greed completely.

Don’t say “That time will NEVER COME!”
With fanciful pooh-poohing;
There’s hope: A FEW STILL PRIZE THEIR LIVES
AT LESS THAN WRONG-SUBDUING.

by Ray Romine Tuesday, April 13, 1943