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Himmelweg: Block Fall From the Zyklon Door

When you have passed nonplussed
by rumours
   of ovens
      of being burned alive by the horde
calcinated bones in torrid ashes
teeth without a name
pebbles in the sands of hate waves

When between you and the other side
is the block-flesh thrust through to Himmelweg
                                       too late
you smell the Zyklon trap
about to be sprung on your innocence
your children looking to you for a way out
not daring to believe
you have left home without an answer

You can only wonder at how they led you
each child's hand ensconced in its mother's
the old and the infirm weeded out
the pill in the nape
    of men rushed ahead from their charges
            huddled
    slapped      jostled
            whipped

for daring to ask with rifle butt
           whacked
     jabbed      bundled
           trundled
the eye searching hazily the breach under the helmet
benumbed fate
squashed hope
in the last faltering meek steps

It's only
when you're on the other side of yourself
      between you and the block-flesh
forming on the other side of the zyklon door

You may wonder why you let your anger go
          in safekeeping

 © T.Wignesan 1987: July 2, 1987 [from the collection: back to background material, 1993]

Copyright © | Year Posted 2012




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Date: 5/26/2012 11:34:00 AM
Stunning poem of the unspeakable... which should be spoken... Stunning... Terry
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Wignesan Avatar
T Wignesan
Date: 5/26/2012 12:02:00 PM
Thank you, Terry, but I rather not lay claim to the thanks: thanks to you for feeling for those who fell under jackboots. It is to your credit, much as it is our collective guilt that such scourges never fail to recur again and again. Every good wish. Wignesan

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