Bibliophile
They say Hitler housed 16,000 books
in Berlin and Obersalzburg—
his dark jewels
In Obersalzburg and Berlin
his books did nothing for his soul
but drag it through the muck of his mind
so that in the end he became as much a victim
of his own immurement as Fortunato
did of Montresor in Amontillado
Predisposed, he heaped word upon word
building an edifice to suit himself. Unable to relate
he read everything that greased the skids of hate
He owned the Racial Typology of the German People,
the works of anti-semite Julius Lehmann,
and any pamphlet that arrived at preconclusions
—which proves:
a bookworm’s library may be vast
and worms may be well-read
but still be worms
at last
.
Jim Culleny
2008