History’s Offal

My father liked to joke
about atrocities.
Faggots burning
in English fields.
The story of a Naval officer
whose guts were fried in front of him,
for “disobedience”.
The “love camps” of the Nazi age.

I’d wonder sometimes
if all men were like him,
licking their chops
at history’s offal.
Before sensing that I
was a man
like that as well.