Page:Poems for Workers - ed. Manuel Gomez (1925).djvu/22

 Bellies

By

At Washington,

I was a bass-drum belly

Waddling through a luxurious corridor of the Capitol.

This belly was a high dignitary

Who sits on an authoritative bench,

And dictates the laws of the gaunt bellies of the poor.

There were other bass-drum bellies waddling about

And lounging in executive chambers;

They make the laws for gaunt bellies of the poor.

And I saw the bass-drum bellies of the rich,

The bankers, the industrial magnates and their lackeys,

Laughing, talking, whispering with these official bass-drum bellies.

And I thought: "What can be the meaning of all this?"

I looked to the North and saw the gaunt bellies of strikers unlawfully beaten and jailed.

I looked to the South and saw the gaunt bellies of factory children denied their constitutional rights.

I looked to the West and saw the gaunt bellies of farmers bankrupt by legalized robbery.

Everywhere I looked I saw the gaunt bellies of the poor

Oppressed and denied their constitutional rights

By these official bass-drum bellies at Washington.

Surely, I thought: "This is a Belly Government,

Of, by and for the bass-drum bellies of the rich." 20