These Books Are Damned. Poem by RIC BASTASA

once
when you start
learning English
i give you
the warning that
this language
knows how to hide
evil intentions,

if you learn it
well enough
you will be like us

mastering irony
not getting direct to
the point
euphemisms are tools
of our
modern exploitation

soon you will speak
like an English gentleman
ethical in manners
restrained in expressions
admirable
fellow

when you grow up
you will be like us
at first we were eager to
change the world
how time must have
betrayed us
we have done nothing

we surrender
we raise our hands against the sky
some out of pity
massaged our brains
our feet
our fingers are worthy to be
cut

we failed. you must
try some more.
perhaps we were just
focused on the blind spots
of our education.

in our libraries
these books are damned.