Burning a Book

Protecting each other, right in the center

a few pages glow a long time.

The cover goes first, then outer leaves

curling away, then spine and a scattering.

Truth, brittle and faint, burns easily,

its fire as hot as the fire lies make—

flame doesn’t care. You can usually find

a few charred words in the ashes. 

And some books ought to burn, trying for character

but just faking it. More disturbing

than book ashes are whole libraries that no one

got around to writing—desolate

towns, miles of unthought in cities,

and the terrorized countryside where wild dogs

own anything that moves. If a book

isn’t written, no one needs to burn it—

ignorance can dance in the absence of fire. 

So I’ve burned books. And there are many

I haven’t even written, and nobody has.