When the regime ordered the dangerous
books be openly burned, alle alle oxen
were coerced and wheelbarrows of books driven
to the stake. A banished poet, one of the best,
surveying the list of the burned,
was incensed. His books
had been forgotten. He hurry, hurry, hurried
to his desk and wrote a letter to the powers that read.
Burn me! he penned, quill trembling
with fury, burn me! Don’t do this
to me! Don’t leave me out! Haven’t I
always reported the truth in my books? And now
you brand me a liar! I order you:
burn me!
Translated from the German by Angie Vorhies.