by Richard Fireman
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It has come to this: Escambia County, Florida, schools have banned the dictionary. Five dictionaries are on the district’s list of more than 1,600 books banned pending investigation in December 2023, along with eight different encyclopedias, The Guinness Book of World Records, and Ripley’s Believe it or Not—all due to fears they violate the state’s new laws banning materials with “sexual conduct” from schools. —PEN America, January 9, 2024 |
If thine eye offend thee pluck it out
says the Bible, and we know
the Florida governor is a righteous man, with principles
and not much thought. His laws
just made one county remove the dictionary
from library bookshelves. Now
where do the children find their answers
except in the abundancy of misinformation?
Plenty of that to go around, no worry.
You say the kids can ask their parents what the truth is
but they’re the ones who voted the fool into office
so not much help there. It seems
they’ll have to wait till they can vote
if they can figure out how to do that
if there even is a vote by then
if there even is a world.
But meantime they’ll just have to remain
in their literally meaningless limbo
and we have to wonder if it’s a coincidence
that the state’s initial is the grade its education deserves.
says the Bible, and we know
the Florida governor is a righteous man, with principles
and not much thought. His laws
just made one county remove the dictionary
from library bookshelves. Now
where do the children find their answers
except in the abundancy of misinformation?
Plenty of that to go around, no worry.
You say the kids can ask their parents what the truth is
but they’re the ones who voted the fool into office
so not much help there. It seems
they’ll have to wait till they can vote
if they can figure out how to do that
if there even is a vote by then
if there even is a world.
But meantime they’ll just have to remain
in their literally meaningless limbo
and we have to wonder if it’s a coincidence
that the state’s initial is the grade its education deserves.
Richard Fireman, writing for over fifty years, has given readings at several libraries and Barnes & Noble, and has published over a hundred poems. In 2009 he contributed a chapter to the bibliotherapy book Writing Away the Demons. In September 2022 ten of his poems (five of which had previously been published) were featured in The Thursday Poets' Anthology: Dreams and Realities, along with those of eight of his fellow online writing circle members. His first poetry collection Constellations was published by Prolific Pulse Press in December 2022.