Birds of Prey

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Birds of Prey (1920)
by Claude McKay

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First published in Workers' Dreadnought, 9 October 1920 under the pseudonym Hugh Hope

2651682Birds of Prey1920Claude McKay

Birds of Prey

Their shadows dim the sunshine of our day,
As they go lumbering across the sky,
Squawking in joy of feeling safe on high,
Beating their heavy wings of owlish gray.
They scare the singing birds of earth away
As, greed-impelled, they circle threateningly,
Watching the toilers with malignant eye—
Birds of the darkness—human birds of prey,
They swoop down upon us in merciless might,
They fasten in our bleeding flesh their claws,
In citied places bathed in bright daylight,
And tugging and tearing without rest or pause,
They flap their hideous wings in wild delight,
And stuff our gory hearts into their maws.

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.

The longest-living author of this work died in 1948, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 75 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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