Continental Silentia

Neat name for the machine
On which the lists were done:
Quietly ordered violence.
Feathers by the ton.

Great name for the device
On which the lists were made:
Pan-European silence,
A pop-gun fusillade,

A muted rat-tat-tat,
The excuse already ripe:
We knew nothing of all that.
All we did was type,

And corrections in those days
Had to be done with x's.
You couldn't just erase
And start again: wrong sexes,

Wrong spellings...it took ages.
Just to get it right
Meant black spots in the pages:
Blurs of a foggy night.

Unspoken and unsung,
Those names that didn't matter.
Sonderbehandlung.
Just written, pitter-patter.

Continental Silentia
For all those in absentia
Respectable dementia
Sub rosa eloquentia

List, oh list
The rest is silence

Put to silence

Zum schweigen gebracht

Typewriter
Firelighter

Tap tap