Yusef Komunyakaa

Yusef Komunyakaa was born James Willie Brown Jr. on April 29, 1947 in Bogalusa, Louisianna, the segregated mill town where he was raised. He was the first of five children born to James Willie Brown, a carpenter, and

Memory of the Murdered Professors at the Jagiellonian

by Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947)

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15

After Hasior

They fired a bullet into the head
of each question, trying to kill Kant’s
unending argument with Hegel.
They burned laws, moral codes,
& 
      the Golden Means. Anyone
    

      serving tea
      & 
      cookies to Death,
    
looking or acting as if he knew love,
stood before the firing squad.

Click here for complete poem