Wandering Hearts (A Poem about the Holocaust)
A spirit established, a heart set in stone
lets citizens know that they're never alone
but something occurred on that day in the past
with eyes rimmed red, screaming
a breaking of glass
and Kristallnacht marks that split second the best
when six million hearts
were ripped out of their chests.
Thrumming and beating, but deathly confused
the souls of these people were beaten, abused
thrown into the masses of featureless faces
herded like cattle
toward inhumane places
where all they were sure of and all they had learned
was taken away
to be laughed at and burned.
Colder than iron, as weak as the dead
the hands of the captives turned lifeless, it's said
for nothing remained behind layers of skin
to maintain the life force
that flickered within
and soon, men and women were primitive forms
robbed of the strength
that protects from the storm.
Only years after the Jews were set free
did wandering hearts cross the graveyards and see
the damage inflicted by ignorant rivals
a torrent of clarity
raw as survival
and though they'd been wounded, and tortured, and burned
the victims' identities
slowly returned.
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Submitted on May 02, 2011
Modified on May 03, 2023
- 57 sec read
- 41 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAXXXXXX BBCDCEXE FFGXGXXX HHXHDEXE |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,081 |
Words | 190 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8 |
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"Wandering Hearts (A Poem about the Holocaust)" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 28 Mar. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/90320/wandering-hearts-(a-poem-about-the-holocaust)>.
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