Krystallnacht ninetenn thirty eight

narrative verse

 

Krystallnacht :Nineteen thirty eight

 

I fear the sound of booted feet.

 They inspire painful memories

though fragmented and incomplete

I can recall so vividly

 

The sound of breaking glass and boots.

I was too young to understand

 the screaming jeers and gleeful hoots.

As storm troopers took full command 

 

and attacked Jewish properties.

 Without restraint from anyone

protestors beaten to their knees.

All semblance of the law had gone.

 

November nineteen thirty eight

The Nazis had proscribed the Jews

the ninth a night of spite and hate.

Who lost all that they had to lose..

 

My parents sent me to the States

 a privilege for which they had to pay

with everything they had. It grates

upon me still that I survived.

 

because of their self sacrifice.

 The guilt I feel still eats away

because they paid the final price.

I know I am alive today.

 

Because some cousins took me in

 and raised me as American.

Although I was but distant kin

Though I would rather not, I can

 

 recall that night so long ago.

 The cries of men in agony

how much is true I do not know.

In dreams I see so vividly

 

The dreadful scenes I did not see

deeply etched in memory.

A turning point in history.

 affecting my whole world and me.

 

 I was a child of only eight

The Nazis killed my family

Though I was saved I had to wait

Til we defeated Germany.

 

 To know for certain they were dead

along with many millions more.

The sound of boots fills me with dread.

I’m glad I can’t remember more.

 

Now I have children of my own

a fit old man of seventy.

I wonder If I could have shown

their courage which would send me free.

 

 

To strangers in a far off land

 where they decided I would be

safer. I think I can understand

their only thought was to save me.

 

I wonder where it all began

I see no reason for it still.

Mans inhumanity to man

and don’t suppose I ever will.

 

30-Nov-08

 

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Reviews

[Donald Meikle]

Eighty I fear old friend,for you were eight and I was one. (a coupla years later they shook my ground but not with boots, twas bombs and sound)