A Little Bit About a Great American

We’ll remember you, Frank Little!

They couldn’t still your voice,

So they strangled it;

They couldn’t chill your heart,

So they stopped it!

They couldn’t dam your life blood,

So they spilled it!

We’ll remember you, Frank Little!

Why didn’t they come in the broad of day

And warn you that in a world

Being made safe for democracy

There was no safety for you?

In the dead of the night they came

And pounced on you,

Dragged you out as if you were an animal

Without daring to let you put your clothes on

Or bind up your broken leg.

They spared you no indignity,

They withheld from you no shame.

Afterward, no doubt, they washed their hands

With the air of men who’ve done their bit

In the cause of freedom.

We’ll remember you, Frank Little!

The papers said: “So far as known,

He made no outcry.”

No, not you! Half Indian, half white man,

All I.W.W.

You’d have died ten thousand deaths

Before you’d have cried aloud

Or whimpered once to let them

Enjoy your pain.

We’ll remember you, Frank Little!

Long after the workers have made the world

Safe for Labor

We’ll repeat your name,

And remember that you died for us.

The red flag that you dropped,

A million hands will carry on;

The cause that you loved,

A million tongues will voice.

Goodbye, Frank Little!

Indian, white man, Wobbly true,

Valiant soldier of the great Red Army.

We’ll remember you!

--Phillips Russell (copied from “A Month of Lawlessness” by Mary Marcy on a Xerox I found)

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