Chereads / Flames of Yore / Chapter 49 - Army Worms

Chapter 49 - Army Worms

What monsters are these 'fore whom,

We have sacrificed our children,

Tears of mothers and the sweat of men,

To beings hungrier than the tomb.

 

Ah! What fiends have we among us,

That hoof to the cry of a tiddler,

Riant, even as our hope gets littler,

What devils have we for masters!

 

Shall I shear my own and buy a coat,

Sirs, at the price of the sheep?

As my younglings and I go to sleep,

Famished, dry, lips to throat.

 

See, the army worms we've reared,

Ravage through the crop,

Their madness and lust won't stop,

Till the granaries are cleared.

 

There's enough yet not enough for all,

Where your young ones learn,

Theirs would with utter contempt spurn,

Yet we'd never call their fall.