Säuberung Poem by March Nicks

Crackle, crackle, pop
Pages smoldering in the streets
Instead of words searing themselves into minds
They scorch the pavement
Only for millions of feet
To cross their path
Leaving the bodies attached
Wandering aimlessly to find meaning
Snap, pop, crackle, crackle

The Third Reich made it their mission
Their highest calling
To cleanse the minds of their youth
To remind them that any culture outside of their own
Was dangerous and that indoctrination
Began with nursery rhymes
Printed on paper.

Pop, crackle, crackle
The only solution is to burn
Every last dissentient thought
Muted by the sounds of growing flames
Pop, Crackle, Snap

The Hitler youth bringing forth the words
Of playwrights,
Scientists,
Psychologists
Rabbis,
The disabled,
Anyone who didn't fit
the mold of the new Aryian race.

The piles of charred chapters
Grow taller and taller
As if to almost block out the sun.
They ask if they will ever see it again.

Crackle, crackle, crackle,
The popping and crackling dies down
In this moment, literary freedom is dead
Words of wisdom and inspiration
Simply ashes covering our feet
Waiting to be swept up with the rest of the dirt.

Säuberung- an act of cleansing culture
To erase an identity.
The sun no longer shines
The only thing to light our path
Are the embers of pages
Once held as precious objects
are now just distant memories.

The fires in these streets may be dying down,
But the burning flames of hate and misunderstanding
Grow with intensity.
While the un-German thoughts may be dust and ash,
Worse days are upon the People of 1930s Germany
They call it a Holocaust- A burnt offering
And the world will never be the same.
Crackle, crackle, hiss