The Ebony Library by Valerie Parente

Welcome to the Ebony Library
where the words you choose to say
are never reduced to ash,
where the voice you choose to use
spits fire like facts.
We don’t burn books here
nor do we back-track,
we recall how bad it felt
to prevent any more bad.
Here history stays untouched
while the past is the past,
we will remember how much it hurt
and we will never go back.

– Valerie Parente (3-21-2021)