No one in is safe
from the self-righteous, entitled bullies
of today—not even the dead

Melvil Dewey, born in 1851, died in 1931,
having been a founding member
of the American Library Association
and having created the
Dewey Decimal System

    (how many hours I spent
    as a child, sliding the drawers out,
    flipping through cards, making
    notes on paper, then setting out
    on excited expeditions to find
    books—thank you, Mr. Dewey)

was canceled in 2019
by that very American Library Association,
who decided to show how willingly they
bend the knee to the conformist mob,
by removing (posthumously, for these bullies
tend to be cowards—they mostly hide behind
gravestones and computer screens)
Dewey’s name from its top honor,
the fucking Melvil Dewey Medal,
and renaming it the Medal of Excellence,
which is ironic seeing as how they know nothing
of excellence or achievement–they know only
how to conform to the whining pressure
of unaccomplished busybodies like themselves–
their names will not be in history books,
unlike the name of
Melvil Dewey

Did Dewey have flaws? Did he do some
nasty things in his life?
Yes—but so did you, and so did I,
and so did everyone who ever lived,
and especially so did and so do these bullies,
who attacked Dewey, not to his face,
not only when he was down,
but when he was six feet down