Never Remember

(Author's note: It has come to my attention that the U.K. has decided to eliminate Holocaust education from its curricula, on the grounds it may "offend" some groups) And so, for fear it may offend, The truth is to be turned without the door And beggared for its embarrassments, By force forgotten, evermore. The ghostly pasts to which we choose to blind ourselves Will not, for that, pass on and disappear. Each unremembered victim bides and waits For fresh companions year to year. A death denied is no less true. The twice-wronged dead are owed their due. So are we now, for comfort's sake Never to remember the strange hot snow That once was people, blown wide below Poland's leaden skies, The murder born of casual lies - And steal from the dead all final dignity Because we lack the will or strength to see The open catalogue of Man's mad mistakes? The road away from truth is dark and long, And wrong forgot breeds greater wrong. One hundred times one hundred centuries Should bear the memory of our darkest deeds. Denial sweeps the slate as we forget And plants tomorrow's evil seeds. I read the lies upon the page And inwardly I rage, and rage. Never remember - and yet again the cycle starts: Sand Creek, Sarajevo, Nanking, Rwanda all repeat With all their gathering ghosts replete With all the sly excuses as to cause; Humanity subsumed within the legal clause. Never remember - and arm the State that separates The "Us" from "Them", that sanctions hate. We close our minds, we seal our hearts. I sit and rage and move my pen, but shall I yet pretend My wearied words will take effect? After all, they may offend.