A Great Man Speaks

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
585618A Great Man SpeaksRobert Ervin Howard
They set me up on high, a marble saint,
   As if to guard the virtue of the park.
   My flanks are gaunt, my gaze is cold and stark,
For I must look the part the liars paint,
They've cleansed my history of fleshy taint.
   The elders bid the younger people mark
   How virtuous I gleam against the dark—
Could I but speak I'd make the bastards faint.

Great God, how could they know the lusty zest,
   The love of life that made my sinews dance?—
      Below me now, against my base, inert,
A lousy tramp, a sleeping house-maid rest,
   I yearn for that square flask in his old pants.
      My fingers burn to feel beneath her skirt.

This work is from the United States and in the public domain because it was not legally published with the permission of the copyright holder before January 1, 2003 and the author died 88 years ago. This is a posthumous work and its copyright in certain countries and areas may depend on years since posthumous publication, rather than years since the author's death. Translations or editions published later may be copyrighted.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1936, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 87 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse