Before the raised eyebrows
and the big
tut-tut,
did any of you lot
ever truly
try burning a book?
You have to attend,
broddle and stoke,
make flames go leafing
page to page,
drive oxygen into the gills
till a sheaf
peels open
exposing its sheets
to the blaze,
get the parchments –
wadded and slabbed –
to surrender in turn
until the effacements
begin, before
the retractions of ink.
Even then
some charred erratum
or index
floats off through the trees,
some ashen verse
or black-edged stanza
can still be riddled
from layers of sludge
after rain.
How many books
did I burn?
Scores.
Whose books? Whose books
did I burn?
Reader, I burned yours.