A Different Fear
Remembering fear.
The sweat of retreat when one can never seem
to run far enough or fast enough.
Remembering the Christian children’s chants.
Devil worshiper, godless,
the taunting hell they saw for those
not blessed to be themselves.
The jeer of the crowd for those not part.
The mob mentality of the Christian heart.
The damn you if your not me to a girl of eight
defies any memory to obliterate.
Breathless behind
a hollow core door gasping with tears
a heart pounding
with the hate thrown the Jew bated.
Was this even an inkling of what Tanta felt
as the German’s knocked down the door.
The marks on her skin brought memories
of trains and camps and more.
And, here in America land of the free
in a place which prides itself on Christianity
remembering the fear at eight, at twelve
and at eighteen every Christmas in between.
Don’t tell, don’t speak, don’t let them know
your different from them…………..
different hated, taunted, chased and if possible erased.
Remember the fear the mob, the gang, the chanting group
when you stand, and pray, when you say Amen.
Remember Christ was a Jew and what was done to him.
Pray that this is never done to another child again.
*Tanta means Aunt in Yiddish...the combination of German & Hebrew that most Jewish folk
speak. Yes this is me and yes half my family is Jewish. BUT I am not considered Jewish by
Jews. Judaism is a matrilineal religion.
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