Spirit of Earth

Grady McMurtry

3 July 1942

I am a Soldier—

I kill!

I am the essence of hatred

And bred in the red alembic of war;

I hate with a feral pride

Both brilliant and terrible.

Once I was Peace

And in my heart there glowed the futile hope

That for all time the bestial law of night

Had sheathed its sanguine talons.

Now I know

That this was false, for in its stead there rose

The tyranny and arrogance of race,

To sweep the world with flaming war and leave

The rancid blood of rapine to immerse

And clot the soil of freedom.

Here my hopes

And thin illusions for a better world

Were crushed and torn between the titan claws

Of brutal force barbarian.

I saw

The planned hypocrisy succeed its goal

And cultured nations reel before the lash

Of monster war mechanical unleashed,

And in my soul

Was gendered from this cataclysmic reft

A hatred more insatiate

Than lust of fame or gain or ought but that I find

This beast of Tyranny, and then with care

Enfold him sure and slowly that he feel

And know with terror numbed tongue the dread

Dark bitter taste of death, as kraken limbed

I crush his life with bonds unloosed and shorn

From peoples never conquered.

Thus I work

And plan that day of justice when all men

May live the peace of progress, and their will

Of life and love be not denied.

For this—I am a Soldier

For this—I kill!

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