Watch Them Burn
Stand around as they burn
Toss in more
Laugh along with the fire’s roar
There goes:
Another stage,
Another life,
Another hope,
Another dream
There goes:
An imagination,
A motion
An idea
A world
There goes:
A word,
A notion,
A voice,
A story
Watch them burn the books
Screams mingle with laughter
Let not the words corrupt the children
Let not the words harm you
For sticks and stones may cut skin and break bone,
But words cut deeper than both
They do not want children to know the past
Of fire, of love, of hatred, and of pain
They do not want the adults to know of today
And the elderly are not to know at all
They do not want the adults to complain
The children are not to blame for bad behavior
No, the elderly alone are at fault
For corroding our minds with words
Look, there they go!
What do they throw?
The first person to burn with the books
Another scream joins the billowing smoke
A cutting sound
An unbearable smell
The burnt images bind
The children stare in fright
Dragged away by adults
And already, the world is dull
No reading, no talking
Imprisoned for what once made the world great
Children, now old, must tell the tale
As tales are told, the young thirst
They thirst for words they never heard
They yearn to see distant lands unfold
You can’t stop them
They’ll still speak
They’ll still write
You can’t stop them
Gears are turning
Look, there, he was caught!
And now, he will be burned with his books
But wait, protests are brewing
They can’t stop the people now
The people scream ideas
Let out words unsaid
And the world explodes
Their words bringing color to the grey land
