August Spies, Haymarket Martyr
Five score
years so soon are gone
That crown that fateful hanging day,
Yet still the years live on and on
And never will they go away!
Eight doomed
martyrs spoke their dreams:
An eight-hour day, their modest hope;
For such effrontery it seems
Four lives were snatched by hangman's rope!
But by a miracle
of fate
The voices still ring loud and clear;
The voices stilled by cruel hate
Are heard today, this hundreth year!
So many years
have passed them by,
Yet louder still the timeless call
Rings 'round the world, a battle cry
For workers' rights, for peace for all!
Raise high
the flag, you workers brave,
March strong and steady, side by side,
On First of May this hundredth year,
So not in vain those martyrs died!
by Susan Kling
May, 1990