Whose Voices These

A ball, a bat, a toy gun, a train suspenders, a cap, and tiny black shoes little boys playing stickball on the dusty street. A jump rope, a doll, a china tea set brown curls, a bow, and a ruffled pink dress little girls skipping rope out in a schoolyard. Ring around the rosie whose voices these? Knitting needles, a pot, and a rolling pin an apron, a kerchief, and an old patched skirt a mother fixing dinner on a creaky wooden floor. A saw, a board, some nails, and a chisel a beard, a prayer shawl, a hat, and leather vest a father carving chairs in a musty workshop. Pocket full of posies whose voices these? A gun, a whip, a club, a knife green-grey uniforms, brass buttons, and shiny boots soldiers marching stiffly in the cobbled street A train, barbed wire fences, cold grey walls a gate, a prison, and "the little red house" people screaming in the showers piercing in the night. Auswitch, Auswitch, we all fall down whose voices These? Gravestones, placards, flowers, and green grass cameras, maps, backpacks, and a guide I hear somber murmurs as I walk through Auswitch's yard. Whose voices these? A family's in a graveyard saying, "we remember thee".