After Hearing About the Holocaust
My ears hurt with the weight of words, the bitter end of innocents, the inhuman
treatment of honorable men and women, without a backward glance of what our part
might be, or could have been, if we were to care at all.
My nostrils are filled with the stench of victimization, the miasma of brutality by those who
carry no shame for their deeds: my eyes bleed the witnessed atrocities of physical
depravation and more I cannot name.
And now, what am I do do with this guilt, this deafening sound shutting out the light my
ears want to hear, are searching for in vain, without a whisper of hope? I am blinded by the
inexcusable, senselessness of it all.
~ Annette Gagliardi
Won 3rd place, Cracked Walnut Award at the League of Minnesota Poets Convention, October 22, 2017.
Published in Poetry Super Highway, online during May 6-12th 2024 and in their Past Poets of the Week Archive at: 