Kenneth Fearing, "AD"

This satirical poem about war, written in 1938 by the American poet Kenneth Fearing, takes the form of a want advertisement.

---

Ad

Wanted: Men;
Millions of men are wanted at once in a big new field;
New, tremendous, thrilling, great.
If you´ve ever been a figure in the chamber of horrors,
If you´ve ever escaped from a psychiatric ward,
If you thrill at the thought of throwing poison into wells, have heavenly visions
of people, by the thousands, dying in flames —
You are the very man we want
We mean business and our business is you
Wanted: A race of brand-new men.
Apply: Middle Europe;
No skill needed;
No ambition required; no brains wanted and no character allowed;
Take a permanent job in the coming profession
Wages: Death.

(Kenneth Fearing: "AD" from New and Collected Poems, Indiana University Press, 1956.)