Electric barbed wire.

 

Red painted house.

 

“You, clean the crematoria!” SS guard’s voice.

Hans, white-haired, tells his story:

A boy of fourteen,

takes part in building a chimney;

 

carries out the dead on handcarts.

 

A black and white photograph:

Quicklime pits.

 

Among wild lilac in an old garden,

 

the arrival of cattle wagons

where the trains are unloaded.

 

A rough plank prisoner-hut.

 

Concentration camp songs: KZ Lieder.

 

Music plays over loudspeakers.

Three crows circling.

 

Folded-up violet of crocus.

 

A black and white photograph:

 

…recaptured prisoner,

preceded by inmates in

striped uniforms -

 

camp Blaskapelle,

 

the brass band plays -

as he is led to his execution.

 

And there grow mulberry trees.

---

Ilona Martonfi Blue Poppy, a first book of poems, published with Coracle Press, 2009. Poet, editor, educator, creative writing teacher. Founder, producer/host of The Yellow Door and Visual Arts Centre Poetry and Prose Readings. Co-founder, producer/host of the annual Lovers & Others.