Remembering Day
Threnody of the Nations
We have hated and fought,
We have murdered and fled,
But the peace that we sought
Is alone with the dead.
We have offered ourselves
On the altar of greed;
We have poisoned our sons
With our venomous creed.
We have bombed and destroyed;
We have raped and diseased,
Till the earth has grown dark
With our war-obsequies.
We have sung our wild song
In the ghouls’ jubilee,
And, O Love, once again
We have crucified Thee.
Leon Adams
Lennoxville, Quebec, May 16, 1940.