Faith my crime

I climb the public gallows
to face the world boldly
quietly, this one last time
here I will twist and hang
swinging with the wind
my faith was my crime

08261979

A blind eye

The fires roar all night
and day
with body, soul and faith
we pray
as they pick our teeth and drag
our remains away
life here is hell, who wants to
live that way
who once believed in you, now
I say...
would a God in heaven, if there
were, turn his eyes away?

10131979

Somewhere Still

Chimneys rising dominate belching
people air
from dawn to dark, Oh God, ...
don't you care?
the unforgettable odor, endless
despair
ashes drifting on the ground
so bare
particles of bone, of life, of skin
and hair
they once were people, now
just ashes there
I fear my faith will break, oh let
this pass
a God in heaven would not let
this torment last
I know soon I will awaken, it
was but a dream
but the dark nightmare enshrouds
my inward scream
I feel beyond hope, you have gone
but where?
where once belief lived only
emptiness is there
I weep in silence, my tears
are all gone too
desperation erodes my everyday
forgotten now by you
now I await encased in this
showered hell
through which gas breathes, my
face red, my bulging eyes swell
in blindness I search for you
somewhere still
screaming, nails clawing walls
my lungs exploding fill
traveling toward the road of
endless sleep
with each successive blow of
each heart beat
now who to pray, and to whom
and who will weep?
The fires roar all night
and day
with body, soul and faith
we pay
as they pick our teeth and drag
our remains away
life here is hell who wants to
live that way
who once believed in you, now
I say....
would a God in heaven, if there
was one, turn his eyes away?

10231979

Never Again

The took them out to pondary
lined them in a ditch
and in the darkness of the night
the sound of guns made their pitch
they threw them in the wide, wide grave
and covered them with earth
their only sin to be born a Jew
a yellow star their badge of birth
now the wound of firing stopped
but the moan of pain lives on
2,000 more once alive
now they too are gone
and people living in the ghetto
know the rat tat tat may sound again
and 1,000 more still living
may join their brothers then

06211979

Too many

There are too many
to list the dead
beyond forgetting
they fill my head
soul suffering
holocaust's dread

05151979

Deadfall

Sucklings ripped from the breast
human slaughter
see them die
all crushed in little heads
filled with milk
mothers cry

Tiny arms wrapped round a leg
vacant eyes
stomach bloated
feel the hunger
see the suffering
another number has been noted

Line up the guns
and mow them down
see the bodies fall
no reason to whats been done here
mental illness
bitter gall

Man's capacity of inhumanity
left this darkened deadfall
corpses of those torture chambers
left to walk
memories endless hall

05131979

Soundless

Taken away, relinquished all
powerless my life I hold
I eat bread covered in mold
and suffer from bitter cold
no one answers our call

All ears now turned deaf
just us here in pain
our life will not resume again
nothing, nobody will remain
no hope for us is left

Time we cannot buy
we're soundless to the ear
they cannot feel the fear
that walks with us here
tomorrow we may die

10291979

Bowels of Hate

Walk through my gates... you damned
enter the portals of hell
through all the horrors of humanity
within their bowels of hate you'll dwell
where living is a walking death
where hunger pervades your soul
come feed my fiery furnace
death is the only.... ultimate goal

09091979

Alive?

They're all gone now
all dead
mother... father
my little sister
and even uncle Fred
killed at Treblinka
father shot
mother… uncle
gassed to death
oh how sister fought
those German sadists
who raped her
kicked… beaten
her last breath
begged for her mother
of all our family
I alone
lived… survived
their death, my guilt
why me… alive?

07111979

Living Hell

This is not life, this is a living hell
more pain than anyone should bear
we walk among the dead, no one to care
if one more starves and another fell
we know the torments of the devil very well
no one to stop the pain, no one to mourn
in blindness we walk, our souls torn
to cry out against the spell
that makes them treat us less than human, it's not fair
what's to be gotten, what fortune will they gain
to make us bear what is impossible to bear
our tortured souls wreathing in pain
surely this time is unreal, or am I insane
I walk into the shower room where
breath deep
death comes
blank stare

01111980

Under a spell

I fell under
the spell
of my dreams
blind to the lies
and the schemes
that turned
my life to hell

12171213

The pit waits

Their bones baked to whiteness
deaths blank stare
bores into my soul, silent outcry

Train loads arriving here daily
packed with humanity
covered with hopelessness and dust

Smokestacks consuming breath
peopled with lines
awaiting to blacken the sky

Once more passed over
I hide within my stillness
afraid to be noticed

They fear our threat
the graves beyond their promise
motherless and fatherless, the pit waits

08041979

Kapos

I cannot sleep
or eat alone
they watch me wash
and go to the toilet
the whistles blow
they call the roll
spindly legs
emaciated bodies
diarrhea a common malady
and filth everywhere
matrons with numbers
on their dress
beat us with sticks
they tattooed numbers
on our arms
amid shrieks of pan
deeply in the skin
my stigmata for life
our heads were shaved
Kapos... Kapos... everywhere
we line up for everything
bugs infest our beds
and devour us in our sleep

05211979

See them line up

See them line up
for the gassing
waiting their turns
in patience
sad eyed silence
prevailing
trying to believe
this a pleasant event
dreaming of cool water
splashing... wetness
deceiving barely smiles
lean over watch
the next bunch load
in... try to see
what?
No one exiting
this way
ahead lies mystery
a travesty
why the lines...
the waiting... panic
don't panic
they said it wouldn't be
much longer
it was the truth
it was a lie... die

05151979

Ghastly Violence

Give me just one life to mourn
or one family to bury in my heart
bust six million is so hard to grasp
it is beyond the capacities of the mind
that ghastly violence, the terrible crime

05191979

Glance down upon him

Glance down upon him, cold and dead
bones protruding, emaciated, eyes filled with pain
no more to shiver nights in his infested bed
he shall not walk among the living dead again
The furnace waits, anticipating heat
unto this end, is that all he deserves
no coffin, no marker, not even a sheet
to cover the bony frame that once held curves
twisted, tortured he lays upon the floor
once he was handsome and proud
a leader among men, he stood out in a crowd
there's nothing left of what he was before
once I held him and laid down at this side
somehow he seems so much smaller,
shrunken up so now that he's died

0111980

Beyond Forgetting

There are too many
to list the dead
Beyond forgetting
they fill my head

05151979

A holocaust not forgotten

Death wasn't silent
it was packed into cattle cars
screamed into open pits
gasped in chambers filled with gas
and permeated the air with ashes
Its echo is still vibrating
across this earth
and will through the centuries
a holocaust not forgotten

05131979