Conscientious Objector

I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death,
I hear him leading his horse out of the stall; I hear the clatter on the barn-floor.
He is in haste; he has business in Cuba, business in the Balkans, many calls to make in the morning.
But I will not hold the bridle while he cinches the girth.
And he may mount by himself I will not give him a leg up,
Though he flick my shoulders with his whip, I will not tell him which way the fox ran.
With his hoof on my breast, I will not tell him where the black boy hides in the swamp.
I shall die, but that is all that I shall do for Death;
I am not on his pay-roll.
I will not tell him the whereabouts of my friends nor of my enemies either.
Though he promise me much, I will not map him the route to any man’s door.
Am I a spy in the land of the living, that I should deliver men to Death?
Brother, the passwords and the plans or our city are safe with me: never through me shall you be overcome.

Edna St. Vincent Millay

return to 11/06 CPF Newsletter