Arbeit Macht Frei
ARBEIT MACHT FREI *
Each metro station should have this sign.
Descend to the hot abyss, to the line.
Steel monster vomits people to the platform,
Ingests another load, another swarm.
Roar of machines. No protest voice -
Up the Mauthausen quarry steps, no choice.
Silent victims into the Auschwitz chamber -
Tiring, lifeless journey to nowhere.
Crowded metro carriage glass-cage:
Same strangers every day - no gender, no age:
Lost silent souls packed, almost touch but never do;
Close-facing, but eyes far-looking through you.
As animals trying to avoid fights but never fleeing,
No one knows or wants to know your inner being,
Your feeling, your thought, your life, your care.
Mechanical hell on wheels going nowhere. **
……………………………………………………………………………………………..
* Infamous sign on Nazi concentration camp entrance,
translates as "Work will make you free".
**Poem is dedicated to the 2 000 000 people who use the
metro daily in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Copyright © Sidney Beck | Year Posted 2011
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