Last Train To Auschwitz
Was it day, was it night?
shufflings, packed with arms, legs, heads, torsos
handled like cattle on a train car, ready to move along the tracks;
the bodies merge -
men, women, teenagers, children, babes in arms,
blended, mixed in sweat and fear, every sound loud
whispering, trembling, internment tremors of a heartbeat pounding;
the echoes live, alive and too well know,
inaudible, aghast, hate, compelling rage and fear
holding every breath, acquiesced acceptance, and submission;
the rumors of truth or lie prevail,
now immaterial, unimportant, insignificance set in a new reality
where time, life, no longer matters, possessions, money, land,
all trinkets left behind, buried to confiscations of time;
last call. boarding passes for all,
believers and deceivers, travelers
on the last train to Auschwitz;
was it day, was it night, yesterday or today?
Surely, you remember, or is it just another lie of denial
history fading away, haunted by the sound of the train whistle
blowing smoke, hollowed thru clouds, in the emptiness of the gray sky,
oblivion of yesterday's images,
peer thru the slitted openings and see
line after line of crosses and stones,
marking the ghosts, waiting, calling out
all aboard now,
ALL ABOARD.
Can we, do we, will we ever learn
from the tragedies
of our shared histories?
Will it be day or
will it be night,
today
or tomorrow?
All aboard now?
Last Train to Auschwitz
for Kai Michael Neumann's Poetry Contest
4/12/21
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