Let Them Not Say

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.