A Poem for Holocaust Remembrance Day, May 1

Holocaust Memorial Day

At dawn
The dead arose again,
Millions of specters
Brighter than the sun.
By noon
The stench of memory
Was unbearable,
As if all graves
Re-opened,
The dead breathing
Their last again.
By night
The stench of the living
Was unbearable
As if all clothes
Were banished,
And naked crime
Hadn’t a stitch
To wear,
And even shame
Went barefoot.
And then the silence.
And then the screams again.
And then the dreams
That would not stop.

(used by permission of Eugen Mahon)