On Banned Books

Flipping pages, back and forth,
Smelling them
Worn from the multitude of years
Sitting high up on that shelf,
Almost forgotten.

Of course, there was no way that
You could ever be
Forgotten.
Who could forget being torn through,
The pages violently flipped
As if you were somehow
Hiding something important in there –
Which is not meant to suggest that the ideas presented
Within you
Are not important.
On the contrary;
Your ideas mean more to me than gold did to Midas,
Are more precious than any of the prized jewels held out of sight
Behind the counter at the jeweler’s kiosk.
No, your ideas are surely the bread and butter to this world,
Holding within you secrets of life,
Of love,
Of happiness, fame, and fortune.
That is, without a doubt, why they must have decided to
Seal you away.
Forever.

They must have had other reasons.
Even the sun must be hidden away,
Turning away from the blades of grass at the edge of the horizon with a gentle kiss of last light.
But the sun is always allowed to come back.
You, poor, beloved bundle of knowledge,
Were cast away by those who resented you,
Thought you too strongly-worded,
Too harmful to those who would otherwise
Lovingly pick you up by your then-crisp binding,
The color still bright and red, with light
Reflecting from the fluorescent bulbs hanging above our heads.
They would have tenderly brushed your cheek with their hand,
The familiar pattern soft and smooth, as they held you out at arm’s length
And spend hour after hour discovering all that you had to offer.

But you did not have that chance.
Your wisdom was silenced,
Your pages clinched tightly together, bound in a
Heavy lead chain and
Secured with not one but two padlocks,
One for each condemning result.

Now, as I lay you down gently in my arms
With the other capsules of knowledge in this great hall of learning,
I can see that you are old,
Your binding cracked,
Your pages yellowed from the exposure to the air which,
Apparently,
We have come to need much more than you.