Allen's "The Bookburner"

( Text 172)

The Bookburner: "I'll tell you a secret: that book is no longer here. I burned it."
"But you loved it!"
'”I burn one each month."
"Is it always the one you love most?"
"No, not always."
"Why though? Why? It was beautiful--"
"I burned it carefully ...page by page."
"Did it hurt?"
"Not while it was burning."
"Does it now?"
"That book is a beautiful memory, it's a part of everything I do now. To burn a book was hard, the first time, I cried, and I didn't even like the book, in fact disliked it. The second time I chose one I did like, not one of my favorites of course. It hurt. But gradually, after that, book by book, I did it more simply, ritually. Without thinking or feeling very much. Then: I burned the beautiful book. Only yesterday. We merged bloods in the burn­ing, 'fires of purification' if you wanta get gooey about it. Whoops--loss of voice there, come back. So. Yes. I burn books. But no one else knows. My brother preferred live things and burned ants in the sun, with a magnifying glass, large, large in my keeping...."

©2006-Allen Sutterfield