The Difference One Person Can Make

Crippler of the strong-willed Germans his

Speeches as smooth as shining cement

Slowly slithering their silent tendrils into your

waiting ear. Kristallnacht

Take down the Jews

Break their windows so the glass splinters

Slicing the imperfect skin of those who weep

Woefully at the life they knew

Deep deep in their hearts would never last

Ghettos

They do not belong here

Jews are “different” “strange” and “not like the rest of us”

They must leave their homes covered with cotton candy

Memories to fill dark dank hovels with spidery

Nightmares

Concentration camps

Strip! Of your identity

You are a number now.

personality

Men and females separate.

memories

You won’t be needing your suitcases.

Enjoy yourselves!

You will be staying in a blank

dark crowded barn a while

You’ll see places never before explored.

an earth-filled over-hydrated wide

open field with a little

surprise waiting underfoot

You’ll finally lose all that stubborn weight!

eating only the bare minimum and then

a little less. Show off your bones!

they will make a trophy gleaming with the hurtful

white of bone then fade to the rotting

yellow of a dying fire