Kim Stafford: Top Hit

But comrades, if we kill him, someone will make 

a martyr song and it will become the anthem sung 

by thousands in the streets—first their streets, then

our own. And if we put them all in prison, they will 

sing it there. And if we send them to Siberia, soon 

it will be our children singing. You can kill a man. 

You can kill thousands. But a song?

Copyright 2022 Kim Stafford. First published in Rattle. Included in Vox Populi by permission of the author.

Kim Stafford writes, teaches, and travels to restore the human spirit. He is the author of a dozen books, including Singer Come from Afar (Red Hen Press, 2021).