Silent Testimony

Sorting of shoes at Auschwitz

mountain of shoes

moldering pyramid

monument to death

wailing wordlessly

of unknowable life miles

danced-skipped-walked-run-marched

tiny children's boots

the saddest by far

held toddling, unsure baby legs

learning to stand

beginning to move through the world

weeded out as tender seedlings

never permitted to grow or blossom

shoes of women

mothers, grannies, aunts

stepped by inches; feet

to their deaths

with brave trepidation

comforting themselves

and frightened children

strong steel-toed work boots

factory workers, machinists, farmers

well made expensive loafers for

well heeled; professional men

trudged hard towards death all
at the end of bayonets and gun barrels

strong, steel-spined men

each someone’s beloved

helpless to stop cold, steel-hardened hate

other mountains of shoes

other places

other grudges

in different, more modern times

tell of indecent-inhuman deeds

each generation striving to

best its predecessor’s

dedicated zeal in the killing arts of genocide

will humanity comprehend?

we have murdered
not

“those people”

so different, unimportant and

"other”

but rather, our own …

Mothers

Fathers

Sisters

Brothers