Lawrence Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com

                           Three Gentlemen Perusing Books
          in the Wreckage of Holland House, December 1940


                                   Manuscripts Don’t Burn

                       -a trope in The Master and Margarita


You needn’t be a gentleman, or English
To care for music, art, truth, beauty, and books
To love civilization and all its possibilities
Through the measured dance of sub-creation

If you happened upon a bombed-out library
You would pull a surviving book from its smoking shelf
Open it to words you may have read long ago
And among transient ruins celebrate eternal verities

I hope I will have the courage to read with you