The Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914-1945Main MenuThe Space Between: Literature and Culture 1914–1945Volume 19 | 2023 | General IssueCFP Special Issue, Volume 22 (2026) : Contingency, Precarity, and Jeopardy: Labor in the Space BetweenCFP | Space Between 26th Annual Conference | Peace and Conflict in the Space BetweenArchiveSubmission GuidelinesReviews and Review EssaysEditors | Editorial Board | Advisory CommitteeThe Space Between Society
Birds of Prey (October 9, 1920. Signed as Hugh Hope). Claude McKay. Workers' Dreadnought.
1media/Claude McKay Birds of Prey_thumb.png2021-03-01T19:14:29-08:00Jennifer Poulos Nesbitt62bc3cb599d3c15be3205b879d3578d58552b09254011Birds of Prey (October 9, 1920. Signed as Hugh Hope). Claude McKay. Workers' Dreadnought.plain2021-03-01T19:14:29-08:00Jennifer Poulos Nesbitt62bc3cb599d3c15be3205b879d3578d58552b092
Birds of Prey (October 9, 1920. Signed as Hugh Hope)
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.
