Fahrenheit 451 –
The temperature at which paper burns.
A fact that made Montag’s heart yearn
For smoke and flame to wrap around page
And set in evening a fiery stage
So all could see books set alight
In a writhing stream of fury bright
Belched from the mouth of a dark,
Dusky snake –
Raking the skies with such pretty lies
Turned ghostly on an acrid rise
Of places and names made obsolete,
Leaving humanity’s sin to awful reek;
But in the darkness, hope gleams still,
Insisting on its desperate will
For young and old, well read and dull
To forge a new society
Where books are treated piously
And thought is free from frugal frames
To roam in fruitful lands untamed