“For those slain at once.
For those living through the months and years
Enduring, watching, hoping, going each day
To the work or the queue for meat or the secret club,
Living meanwhile, begetting children, smuggling guns,
And found and killed at the end like rats in a drain.”

—  Stephen Vincent Benét

Source: Litany for Dictatorships (1935)

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Stephen Vincent Benét photo
Stephen Vincent Benét 102
poet, short story writer, novelist 1898–1943

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“For those slain at once.
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Context: For those slain at once.
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Enduring, watching, hoping, going each day
To the work or the queue for meat or the secret club,
Living meanwhile, begetting children, smuggling guns,
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