lost in translation in poetry

not understanding German
speaking only English and
fragments of French and Spanish
I cannot say for it either way
however

these days I have some around to wondering
if Hitler was actually a decent orator at all
I can’t understand a lick of what he’s saying
it is all just loud and frothing bluster
to someone who doesn’t know the language

I have come around to considering
maybe he was terrible at speeches
maybe he was simply echoing the
hate that millions already
wanted to believe and now
his supposed skill was just
the excuse they all agreed to
after the fact of their failure

maybe they all knew he was an idiot
maybe he was throwing childish tantrums
maybe he was barely literate in Deutsch
but they all pretended that
he had some impossible charisma
to absolve themselves of the horrors
they all wanted to enact on the world
as if he was pulling them into atrocity
in opposition to the truth
that he was just the moron
crudely articulating their
dreams of endless blood

only speaking English
I look upon my nation now
considering if the false histories
we build around charismatic leaders
aren’t all just lies to let the masses
sleep in bed at night after the fires cool
if we retroactively create the stars
to forget the fault that lie squarely
in our dark collective hearts instead

I can’t say, of course
but man, I’ve got a feeling