Eclipse

 

 

 

The railway carried us away

On trains by day,

On trains by night

Away

To descend onto a God-forsaken stage

In hell

In the line to the left

You need no bed, nor shelter

In the line to the right

You will run with a sack on your back

Until you can’t go on

Until

In naked fear

Your dignity stripped

All contact from before, lost

You are forgotten

Outside of the imagination

Of those who might care

For now

While you assemble

In the chamber

For a shower

Of gas

Just a number

Like your brother

Who has passed

Outside the stinking wall

Where almost all

Are corpses

Stacked and burned in the open air

There is no room in the crematorium

And those not yet dead

Are turned on the fire

And the rank smoke rises

To eclipse a sun

That shines brightly

Beyond the pyre

Above a disconnected world

 

 

 

Carol Falaki