the book burning

The veins routed the long, cold streams

like waterways that would not thaw

even into the furnace of their hankering hearts.

none knew the children were beneath the shadows.

none knew their diseased systems were contagious.

Tell me preacher, 

when you first lit the cleansing pyre

were you the fire or the wind?

Could you hear their skulls 

shrinking from the chilled notions

or the vacuous brains compensating for the loss?

And tell me,

did the dolts of your propaganda

seek solace; did their infested vessels

seek their cheeks to rosy against glow,

and did your hard-on thicken 

and your girth sicken your mind

while you placed your sunken lips 

to their parching ears

and sucked what was left 

of their independent condition

while they expected cultivation

and mistook you for it?

none knew the children would never understand.

none knew that they were lemmings along to your edge.

Did your incredulous hands warm against the blaze?

Did the religious books burn red like your American blood?

The veins of their mind continued

to route those long, cold streams 

along the waterways that would not thaw

even as those foreign pages bounded in 

sheathes of un-interpretable verse

became unwarranted dross.

The children would later sift

through those smoldering blessings

still reeking of your sour breath

seeking purity, but only lifting their eyes.

Some would never discover

that the smell of the righteous

would well serve investigated.

Some would later discover

these molten principles could never be exhumed.

Reviews

[Jack...]

Out of control X. This thing just blew my mind. Where did this come from...wait...don't answer that. My friend, this thing is stellar. So very dark and sad and disgusting, but written so damn well. This one has burnt a hole in me.....

[m.s.early]

Thanks Jack. I had just watched a "The Waltons" episode where John Boy was trying to publish an article about Nazism when Hitler was rising to power. The town boycotted his paper claiming he publishing Nazi propaganda. At the end the village pastor was attempting to burn German books at the Baptist Youth event. Ironically, they were about to burn a KJV Bible that was written in German. It was pretty powerful.