Haymarket

wearing their convictions proudly
they stood before a hanging judge,
their black rags gone through a grinder
refashioned to function as nooses
   around their necks.

They held their heads high, 
proud to be challenging
a fast-forming bully
too easily hurt,
it's vindictive fabrication 
sealing their fates. 

Unspoken words haunting
hungry hacks demanding sacrifice.

Good men dropping, necks broken,
their integrity intact and proud
despite the denunciation of others
caught in a fever, blind to democracy,
beholden to robber barons.

Twisting the founders to new shapes
with sharper, nastier edges,
the keepers of public morality stood
caressing chains made of rope
cordoning off the confronting
call of the Haymarket martyrs.