Dachau

 

The first snowdrops poked their heads above the parapet

An act of heroism in an unheroic world.

My eyes stinging with the freeze rejoice

 On my island of green I stand firm

Surrounded on all sides by snow like ice

Sharp, cruel and threatening to break through the frontline

Of my black leather jackboots.

No joyful bird song shattered my military meditations

No winter wild squirrels seeking solace and sustenance

Scamper on this arsenic flavoured icing sugar coated grass.

I stand alone with my thoughts populated by the ghosts of thousands

In the gargantuan shadows cast by Dachau

And I feel fear in every strand of DNA I am

Me, the grateful granddaughter of a German Jew

And I thank God for the purity of snowdrops.