Saul Balagura - I Did See You
A figure sliding silently
over consecrated ground
as if not wanting to impose
on the arriving eyes,
passed me like
gentle breeze
on a warm evening,
or even better,
like the breeze at six
when I stood on my mountain
looking at the horizon
expecting to see it all.
How could I fathom
that that same horizon
was shadowing
in its dark cloak
the death of mankind.
Trees shattered by shrapnel,
scattered little corpses of small
birds
their wings fluttering
on that same gentle breeze,
and him passing by me silently.
You think I never saw you,
but how could I have missed
your
haggard body,
striped oversized suit,
neck emanating from a collar
marked Buchenwald,
a cap covering your shrinking
head
and those giant ears
that made you look like a clown
in that horrible circus of death,
barbwire and rot.
I never got to see
your face,
you were too quick for me,
who stood there,
paralyzed in an eternal cloud
of agonizing standstill
absorbing odors,
and pictures
that I could have never
imaged when I stood
on the other side of the horizon
thousands of miles
and a childhood away.
Saul Balagura
