Kipling's 'Hyaenas' Are Still in Our Midst

After the burial parties leave

  And the baffled kites have fled;

The wise hyaenas come out at eve

  To take account of our dead. 

How he died and why he died

  Troubles them not a whit.

They snout the bushes and stones aside

  And dig till they come to it. 

They are only resolute they shall eat

  That they and their mates may thrive,

And they know that the dead are safer meat

  Than the weakest thing alive. 

(For a goat may butt, and a worm may sting,

  And a child will sometimes stand;

But a poor dead soldier of the King

  Can never lift a hand.) 

They whoop and halloo and scatter the dirt

  Until their tushes white

Take good hold of the Army shirt,

  And tug the corpse to light, 

And the pitiful face is shewn again

  For an instant ere they close;

But it is not discovered to living men –

  Only to God and to those 

Who, being soulless, are free from shame,

  Whatever meat they may find.

Nor do they defile the dead man's name –

  That is reserved for his kind.

 

Benton County Courthouse, Oregon - part of the daily gathering of the cackle (Molly Woodstock)