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No Butterflies in the Ghetto

six million stones
a railroad car streaked red
a thousand astrodomes
swollen with dead children
the population of houston
dallas wiped out

ugly striped prison uniforms
signifying captures and escapes
martin luther as a bigot
bonhoeffer as a hero
dying days before the
liberation

faces from rwanda darfur
signaling the continuance
of a tradition of genocide
a danish fishing boat
hiding neighbors in a
fake bottom to escape
a wicked storming

the pictures of happy
proud loving families
bludgeoned in broken glass

a soft cloth golden star
like a slave branding
pulsating with hatred and
judgement harsher than
the ornate letter a for hester

1500000 butterflies
sewn drawn carved
remembering
the children who lost 
their lives in the 
Holocaust

"Butterflies don't live in here, here in the ghetto" Pavel Friedman, April, l942

Written after a visit to The Holocaust Museum of Houston

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  1. Date: 11/20/2011 2:28:00 PM

    ~~Reading Rainbow Theme Song~~ Butterfly in the sky ** I can go twice as high ** Take a look ** It's in a book ** A Reading Rainbow** I can go anywhere ** Friends to know ** And ways to grow ** A Reading Rainbow** I can be anything ** Take a look ** It's in a book ** A Reading Rainbow ** A Reading Rainbow**

  1. Date: 4/11/2011 10:19:00 AM

    Masterful, have you stopped writting? You are so very talanted I hope you come back to us and I can read more! Light & Love