You, brilliant as lightning flash with respired
madman ego, found your Being and Time
globally admired while your soul fell mired
in Hitler’s fantasy, caught up in crimes
of ethics: squealing on fellow teachers,
brainwashing youth to follow Der Führer.
You should have stayed in bed with Hannah, her
love a rusty clasp despite the furor
over your lies and country-boy hatred
of Jews, Nazi ties till the party’s end.
Strange how Sartre read you in stalag, spread
your thought through his own essay. Let’s pretend
you regretted your Rektoratsrede lies,
though we never heard you apologize.
Roger Armbrust
March 30, 2008
