Apostrophe to Man

Edna St. Vincent Millay

(1892-1950)

(on reflecting that the world is ready to go to war again)

Detestable race, continue to expand yourself, die out.

Breed faster, crowd, encroach, sing hymns, build bombing planes;

Make speeches, unveil statues, issue bonds, parade;

Convert again into explosives the bewildered ammonia and distracted cellulose;

Convert again into putrescent matter drawing flies

The hopeful bodies of the young, exhort,

Pray, pull long faces, be earnest, be all but overcome, be photographed;

Confer, prefect your formulae, commercialize

Bacteria harmful to human tissue,

Put death in the market;

Breed, crowd, encroach, expand, expunge yourself, die out,

Homo called sapiens.