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About This Poem
The Dead Winter
The Dead Winter
(A bio of a Jewish girl’s tender soul)
Abigail~ “Her Father’s Joy”
Artistic kindergartner, honest, emotional, mischievous
Big brown eyes
Sister of Aaron, Daughter of Rosa and Shoen
Lover of riding her tricycle, playing with dolls
Who fears starvation, separation, severe cold
Now, merely skin and bones…
Heart beating faster than a locomotive
Crammed into a cattle car heading to Auschwitz
Her miniature teeth chattering amidst the sounds of wailing Jews
Starvation distorts the echoes of the screeching train
The stench of decomposing neighbors overtakes her
Too dehydrated to shed a tear
Nazi floodlights pierce her once beaming eyes
Her dreams soon to be disinfected
Vapors escape her brittle bleeding lips
Fragile flesh iced as it adheres to the cattle car’s steel bars
Afraid of being separated from her family once again
Clinging tightly to the frozen fabrique of her grandmother’s prayer shawl
All hope is lost…
Her innocence is punished
How could she be the eternal enemy of the Fuerher?
She’ll never know
Through the bitter cold and the foul smelling snow mixed with human ashes
The beauty of an emerging crocus fades
A scent never to be fully realized…
Abigail, “Her Father’s Joy”
Written for Sidney Lee Ann's Contest~ Dead Winter
by Gwendolen Rix
12-10-11
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