Page 26 - Contrast1965Spring

IN FREEDOM'S NAME

(The Man Who Killed God)

I heard the bells on Christmas morn
Appealing to their God most high
Speak softly, for you comfort me
Your tune is all the song I know

On New Year's Eve I came back drunk
And saw God standing at the door
And shot him dead.

Later I stood against a wall
And refused a blindfold but
They decorated me instead
For the crime of patricide.

February found me in a foxhole that
And I was the only one who knew
It was God I'd killed
So we were soon to follow.

Spring turned snow to mud
And still we fought to rna ke t he world
Again safe for democracy
And the joint chiefs of staff
Became our God.

In summer I was five y~ars old trigger
And killed a thousand Germans
With the squeeze of the plastic
Of the gun that was my God.

In autumn I was twel ve and
Blood was the farmer's harvest in Korea
And Viet Nam was someone else's problem then
But God would keep me safe from such a plight.

Now God is dead and I am here day
Below the heathen soil on Christmas
I hear the be 11s.

Cary Wolfson

24