Red Fish

Okay Mom, Whatever you say Mom

[operattack]

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Iconic.

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Poland

Though only here for a week

It felt like it could

Always be cold

Semi frozen

And with a permanent fog

Permeating the countryside

With the weight of

The unfathomable tragedy

With the weight of

All of the lost souls

And the trees who have

Seen it all

All of the suffering

All of the brutality

How do we ask them to share?

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Birkenau

It was almost poetic

The way the sun hit the roofs

And the fog muted the

Pinks and blues and oranges

The way it seemed to go on

In endless amounts

Symbolizing the endless amounts

Of the lives that perished

The smashed barracks

Next to the full

With just the chimneys

Remaining

And the actual chimneys

Destroyed

The frozen grass

Under a smattering of snow

And the trees, the trees

Showing life still remains

In such a deadly place

In such a deathly place

And there we came and left

With someone whose life

The camp tried to claim

But we walked out signing

We walked out.

Singing.

We got to leave

As a symbol of the

Lives who left

With an unending strength

We left with some of that strength

If even a small fraction

To carry with us always

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Auschwitz II

The fading sun

The fog, the expanse

The expanse of the space

The expanse of the meaning

The expanse of the weight

And the sadness

And the understanding

Of how much we do not

Understand

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Rest in Pieces

A clearing of trees

A clearing away of souls

Here we take them back

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Lodz Ghetto

Illusion, delusion

Inequality, and starvation

Walk into a ghetto.

Almost no one leaves alive

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Lodz Cemetery

A marker, a marker, a marker

A marker

A name for a body

A space for a name

Row after row after row

After row

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

A Concentrated Forest

Months away from spring

The trees look like skinny skeletons

Against the grey sky

Both small and tall

They stand together

In crowded forests

With just a few plush pines

Standing guard at the edges

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

We Do Not Count

What is a number

When there is a name attached?

How could this happen?

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Warsaw Ghetto II

What is a piece of bread?

What does it mean

When it is everything?

What do you do

When you are crying

Silently

And a child comes before you

And cries louder?

What does it mean

To sacrifice?

What does it mean

To put another before yourself

In the face of extreme adversity?

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Warsaw Ghetto I

Crowded, crowded, crowded

Can’t move anywhere

But you can see out the window

So it’s okay, right?

Families stay together

But you can’t turn around

You’re boxed in

You’re walled in

You have hope

But it’s backing you

Into a corner

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Concentration

Is it a song?

Of the weak, tired, and hungry?

Is that something you can sing?

Is it something that you feel instead?

When the hours you’ve slept

Are never enough

And the food you receive

Is never enough

And the body you live with

No longer functions

As you want it to

It is a song

Of the strong

Of those who had nothing

To an untrained eye

But pushed through

With everything left

With anything left

It is something we can sing and feel

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

Warsaw Cemetery

Hundreds of headstones

Covered in moss

None of them standing straight

All of them distressed

And showing their woes

In what they stand for

Some hold more symbolism

Than others

But all are powerful

In their own right

And two areas of empty space

Containing so much more

Beneath it

Than one can imagine

Because one doesn’t want to

Imagine

Even through the cold

And the spattering of snow

Little sprouts are fighting

For their lives, here and there

Showing there is life

Through hardship

There is life through despair

The body may be gone

But the soul will push through

And get the recognition it deserves

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

We Flew Right By the Sun

And suddenly 

Almost all at once

It became morning

Mostly because

We flew right by

The sun

Well, that’s how it seemed

The dark cabin

Was illuminated enough

That I opened my eyes

With a start

It is fascinating

To experience

Such an early hour

In the sky

Where there is little

To detract

From the endless sky

And the colors that are created

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

41000 ft

At 41000 ft 

And with slightly impaired eyesight

Even then I could see

The sky in colors I’ve never experienced

We are flying east

Toward my homeland

One of them, anyway

To my left

The little windows in a row

Show the most beautiful ombre

From a dark purple

That quickly fades into 

A vivid pink

Right at the edge

When I turn my head

To see the view on the other side

The ovals show a solid blue

A bright color 

That I can only grasp to name

Turquoise? Robin’s Egg?

It looks delicious 

Like a drink of water

On a hot day

And it amazes me

The contrast from one side

To the other

Especially noting how little

I can see

One can only imagine

What the rest of the sky

Might look like

What other colors

That may be missed 

If not at 41000 ft

[toska91]

[crunchtimeisthestoryofmylife]

You live in this

I don’t know what it is about you

That makes me want to write you down

And immortalize you in words

But here you are

In digital black and white