Let Them Not Say
Jane Hirshfield

Let them not say:          we did not see it.
We saw.

Let them not say:         we did not hear it.
We heard.

Let them not say:            they did not taste it.
We ate, we trembled.

Let them not say:         it was not spoken, not written.
We spoke,
we witnessed with voices and hands.

Let them not say:        they did nothing.
We did not-enough.

Let them say, as they must say something:

A kerosene beauty.
It burned.

Let them say we warmed ourselves by it,
read by its light, praised,
and it burned.