They've started out small
By burning our books
Offended by words
And too scared to look
The real world is out there
A brave few take heed
Writing the things
That humanity's sheathed
But what will we do
If these people progress
And all of our thoughts
Are completely repressed
To the point where the future
Of books has been ceased
And we all only read
What they tell us to read
Well Huck Finn's a goner
And Tom Sawyer's dead
And Roderick Usher
Is burned in his bed
Elsewhere is nowhere
And Dorothy's gone missing
Westley and Buttercup
Will never start kissing
Five people in heaven
Will never be met
And poor Cinderella
Will never be wed
John Proctor's lesson
Will sadly be muted
And the minister's veil
Will hang undisputed
The Martians are gone
Their chronicles, untold
As the Lost Boys and Peter
Begin to grow old
Potter's expelled
And Holmes is retired
And Romeo's love
Is forgotten with fire
Asimov and Bradbury
Bukowski and Poe
Hemmingway, Emerson
London and Thoreau
The writers of the past
The future, and today
The poets and the essayists
Whose words are turned to prey
Diminished and demolished
Demeaned and left to die
Books are burned and banished
In the blinking of an eye
But you can stop the killers
Of these literary greats
Just educate the ignorant
To help subside the hate