The Book Burning
When the regime ordered that books with dangerous knowledge
Were to be publicly burned, and from everywhere
Oxen were forced to pull cartloads of books
To the pyres,
A banned poet, one of the best, discovered
In the list of the burned, that his
Books had been forgotten. He hurried to his desk
on wings of rage, and wrote a letter to the authorities.
Burn me! he wrote with a flying pen, burn me!
Don’t do this to me! Don’t leave me out! Haven’t I
Always told the truth in my books? And now
You treat me like a liar! I order you:
Burn me!
Poem originally appeared in Cider Press Review, 2009. Order Here.