Before Matilda, before Harry Potter and Hermione Granger,
When I was a child, there was Pippi Longstocking, full of danger.
Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden were my mystery go-to books.
You could not rouse me from their adventures with grappling hooks.
I discovered Jo March in Little Women Christmas Day 1964.
Robin Hood and Little John I was soon also rooting for.
Atticus Finch in to Kill a Mockingbird was lovely to read.
I devoured books the way a horse eats with a bag feed.
Today children have so many heroes and super heroes.
But back in the day, we did not have nearly as many.
After I discovered science fiction and Guy Montag,
I guess I started opening my horizons; then I had plenty.
What can I do?
My brethren - Dank. We are
not fit to wipe the asses of
these sons of the star of David -
and yet, we crush their horrid
corpsed lives beneath Nazi-issued
boots. We want to live, too.
Say I actually approach my
officer, pout, give him my best
spiel, if you will. His hand will
grope the trigger faster than the
breasts of his sweetheart in
Barrack Neun during a roll call
hooky.
So I plug my rounds,
rotate a new traincar through
every Montag and Freitag.
And when I sit down to table
with the uniformed prison guards,
I take an extra drink -
and drink to forget.
This poem appears online at http://wordsareaneed.blogspot.com/2014/07/pity-me-or-on-second-thought-dont.html.
This verse has syllables: 4, 5, 1
(Pattern of syll.’s: 4, 5, 1, 4, 5, 1, etc.)
Firemen burning
Books without a care
Hmm…
Four fifty one
Degrees burn its proof! –
Naught!
The books, priceless
With knowledge and words
Typed,
But left unread,
In a creative…
Way
Guy Montag is
A unique fireman…
He
Worked for ten years –
WATCHED
The pages scorch
Aflame with pleasure –
He’s
Bad to the bone…
But, he will be a
Grand
Hero soon…Hence,
He meets a weird girl
Who
Teaches him lessons
She’s age seven-
Teen
What is her name?
Oh! It is Clarisse!
She…
Influenced him
To reflect upon
Life
Guy Montag sees
His role differently
Hmm…
He sees his life
In another light –
Good!
He played with fire
He explores the world –
Burned!
A man of no thoughts
Till he met a little girl
Who told him what she thought
And completely transformed his world
A burner of books
Without a thought in his mind
Decided to take a chance
And leave his old life behind
He went to an old lady’s house
To burn the books and the house down
But stole one of the books
And The Collection of Shakespeare he found
He went home that night
And opened up the book
And to his surprise
His world is what it shook
His wife caught him reading
And called the department of fire
And the next thing he knew
He was stranded on a wire
But he still had his friends
Who helped him out
And got him out of this mess
Without a doubt
They gave him an earphone
And a chemical changer
To make sure
That he would stay out of danger
He started that night
Without his wife
But he and his friends left
With a new life.
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