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)
So, for fear it may offend,
The truth is to be turned without the door
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 -
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,
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,
Then plant tomorrow's evil seeds.
I read the lies upon the page
As inwardly I rage, and rage.
Never remember - 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.
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