No Mercy Left

No Mercy Left

To                                        forget     the dead

a Pole with eyeglasses

playing his life

my Polish comrade

“Have mercy!”

a beautiful sound

in such silence

a cynical smile in a pale face

unfulfilled hopes, charred past, extinguished future

never forget Juliek

“You’re crushing me.”

playing his life

a Pole with eyeglasses

he was not dead

a fragment of a Beethoven concerto

an audience of the dead and dying

“Are you all right, Juliek?”

to hear his voice

to know his answer

“You’re crushing me.”

my Polish comrade

ceased to suffer

he would never play again

“Have mercy!”

his soul had become his bow

“I’m afraid….

eyeglasses

faint voice

pale face

They’ll break my violin.”

tired

feet are swollen

I awoke

“Are you all right, Juliek?”

“Have mercy!”

my Polish comrade

bidding farewell

facing me, hunched over

a silent death

his violin trampled

an eerily poignant little corpse

“Have mercy!”

would               be akin      to killing   them a second         time.