Albert Parsons Can Hang

November 11, 1887

Lay bare the inequities of capitalism; expose the slavery of law; proclaim the tyranny of government; denounce the greed, cruelty, abominations of the privileged class.

Albert Parsons3

 

a dumb kid of privilege.

a son of the south.

a descendant of the american revolution.

as a boy, he fought with the confederates.

as a man, he apologized to the Black woman who raised him.

a lover of Lucy,

           part Mestizo & Black radical socialist,

           more dangerous than a thousand rioters.

a typesetter like my grandfather.

a believer in the rights of the worker.

an 8-hour day & 8 to sleep & 8 to play.

a ringer of the alarm.

a white tiger, before Huey, maybe

           dynamite, Jimmie Walker

an organizer in the good times

           summer sunday beer gardens.

a longing for bread or blood.

a leader in the rise of the working class.

a target the barons went after.

an albatross to the merchant prince marshall field.

a defendant in the Haymarket Riot

           no evidence, no fair jury

           railroaded by george pullman.

Albert Parsons

a white man to become

a white man who acted

a white man unbound

           by guilt or other bullshit

a prisoner in cell 29

a writer, live from death row.