Tattoo: For Yom Hashoah
No one makes it through life whole without the
Branding: marks, scars, tattoos that testify
To sorrows endur’d, bitter pills swallow’d;
Some say the inner invisible ones
Wounds deepest. My tattoo on the forearm
Pierces through to my soul like a sliver
Infected, pussy, smarting constantly—
I was sub-human, thought expendable.
“Schneller! Schneller!” Under blinding lights bark
Camp guards as we stumble blindly, free from
Cattle car stench upon arrival. My
Precious Gretel taken away at once.
Workers to the left, showers to the right
I’d die in your place, Love, one-thousand times!
© 2016 David W. Palmer
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