Auschwitz December 14, 2010
Even the trees are silent.
They do not wish to admit
that which they have seen.
The birds chirp, unknowingly.
The trees know, they remember.
And now they stand, drawn inward,
upon themselves
as if shivering away from this place of horrors.
The branches do not grow out, they grow in
and up, as if to flee that which
that which the trees cannot believe
had happened in their youth.
Perhaps the trees point the way:
the road to freedom, the only one not
closed off by barbed wire fences,
that of upwards, to the sky.
Not via the crematorium:
for not all things human burn.
But rather that flight of souls
to eternal rest, salvation, and hope.
Where forever they will be free of tyranny and horror.
And their sufferings and sacrifices, their blood
will have been redemptive, in so much as they bore it
as best as they could, on earth.
Never losing their soul, even through their bodies
were wasted away.
Starved, locked up in rooms,
one meter square, with three others.
Yet never did these brave souls compromise.
Never did they give in to evil.
Diligently they squared their souls
and fought, silently, uncompromising with tyranny.
Silently continuing their song
even as megaphones blared news
of fresh military victories by their earthy enemies.
But they, redeemed, know which side wins in the end.
July 2006