Arbeit Macht Frei

How can we forgive those
who mask deceptions
behind luminous slogans

The lights at Auschwitz
burn no less clear than
The lights at famine's

Gruel kitchens and bowl
doles of rice
to 'a deserving Nation'

Patience queued
by papers signed for which
will live and which will die
the elderly, the children,
the ablebodied

Able for
'cash-for-work'
or belief
again in 'Arbeit Macht Frei'

Words of such evil in them
where the lines are only
wrecks
of what were meant as

Human bodies

Among the naked
the dishonest
the exploiters
the hoarders
the father

Using every trick to look
after his own
often it is hard
to spot even a firefly's worth
of human light

In this dark worst way to die
without thought
for man
woman
or child.

"For this relief, much thanks."

Hamlet 1.i.

One by one the cold procession of old men
Old women and old children walk the new path
To work
All is white
Except this ragged
Group of wheelbarrows
long glistening shovels

They build another piece of road
But their hearts are not in it

Now it's mid morning
Around them a white sprinkle of frozen grass
The women and children
Are crying in the iron clad cold
Ice sequins sparkle on their wrappings

Down at the road's edge
On the gray pile of stones
The first one is dying

These charcoal sketches have no date

I can place them in winter 1847
Or winter 1943
Or winter 2000

Neither hanging clothes nor faces
Are distinct enough to tell a country

This could be any and everywhere
But, thank God, not here.

^

Biography

Chris Neenan lives in Rome where he is professor of English Literature at John Cabot University. He is also editor and consultant for economic and banking documents in Italy's central bank, the Banca d'Italia, and visiting lecturer for Corporate Communications at the Malta University Link Campus. Chris has published poetry in Cortland Review, ForPoetry, Stirring, and frequently in E-Acorn.