Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE INVOLUNTARY SLACKER, by WILLIAM A. PHELON


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE INVOLUNTARY SLACKER, by                    
First Line: Strong, young and healthy--so the whole world says
Last Line: Was ever crucifixion such as mine?
Subject(s): Alienation (social Psychology); War; World War I; Estrangement; Outcasts; First World War


STRONG, young and healthy—so the whole world says,
Gazing upon me as I walk the street—
Perfection physical, from flashing eye
To the firm arches of my sturdy feet.

No one dependent on my working hands,
No aged mother and no feeble wife,
Not one to hold me from the battle-grip,
No one whose life is woven with my life.

The little children mock me as I pass—
Young men in uniform cast mocking jeer—
The women turn their scornful eyes aside,
The pavements and the cobbles hiss and sneer.

Despised by all, and outcast of the town,
I slink in shame upon the daily scene—
And, as the lepers once were driven forth,
The city cries: "Begone—unclean, unclean!"

Yet I have TRIED. Day after day I seek
The stations whence young men come out in glee,
Passed and approved—and the stern surgeons tell
Me to go forth—there is no place for me!

"Organic lesions—not a chance that you
Could ever fight—we can not take you—No!
We're sorry, boy," they say, with pitying eyes,
And I, cast out, once more pace to and fro—

Rejected—useless—yet the patriot world
Thinks me a cringing cur, whose coward whine
Has kept him from the trenches—God above,
Was ever crucifixion such as mine?





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