New Guinea "Converts."

I saw them as they were born,
    Erect and fearless and free,
Facing the sun and the wind
    Of the hills and the sea.

I saw them naked, superb,
    Like the Greeks long ago,
With shield and spear and arrow
    Ready to strike and throw.

I saw them as they were made
    By the Christianizing crows,
Blinking, stupid, clumsy
    In their greasy ill-cut clothes:

I heard their gibbering cant,
    And they sung those hymns that smell
Of poor souls besotted, degraded
    With the fear of "God" and "hell."

And I thought if Jesus could see them,
    He who loved the freedom, the light,
And loathed those who compassed heaven
    And earth for one proselyte,

To make him, etcetera, etcetera, -
    Then this sight, as on me or you,
Would act on him like an emetic,
    And he'd have to go off and spue.

O Jesus, O man of the People,
    Who died to abolish all this -
The pharisee rank and respectable,
    The scribe and the greedy priest -

O Jesus, O sacred Socialist,
    You would die again of shame,
If you were alive and could see
    What things are done in your name.