Habetula
Excerpt from the Book of Collected Holocaust Poetry, Unworthy Lives, Published 2004, Pages 61-62
Copyright © 1998, 2007
Jason Lester Atkins
985 Fleet Drive, #347
Virginia Beach, VA 23454
All Rights Reserved.
All I say is true: I speak to enter
your memory path: I speak in memory of our
un-worthy lives: The soldiers move our brainless bodies
to a waiting van: Our thirty bags of girls
are the last of our school: The boys had
waited all day: I fly above the moving van
singing a silent "Momento Mori": At the edge of
city park, a pit is waiting with the kindle
kegs of gasoline: They light Maria's body beneath my
flaming feet: Karl has curly hair that briefly blazed
like flaming peat: Our burning pit of children becomes
a "Habetula": This grave of virgins ends duty for
the soldier team, making their December Sabbath complete:
These Austragothi and Visigothi haven't finished with their ape men
yet: We send no avenging spirits, flying on burning
white body ash, down their decent streets: I the
only voice, escaped alone to tell you: I hear
a shriek of sad laughter from my spirit guide ...
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