Of A Jewish Captive - Auschwitz - Day One

try not to breathe.
the air is tangible and heavily
laden with smoke and evil unseen
thus far, but it is drawing nearer to we
who are bound captives, there’s and
unfree.

take hold of my hand.
our legs move with human speed
upon the damp and fallen, wicked land
where we stumble and fight to stand
tall again, like them, shoulder to shoulder
man to man.

look not at their eyes.
we are what is left, and what will be
the trembling and unjustly despised
and we wake only for sake of another try
another chance, to uncover the lies, and still
we know not why.

make yourself strong.
the suffering souls cry out during
the night and ache until the rising dawn
and the road, seemingly endless, grows long
intensely venomous, pain erasing the sweet old tune
of our only song.

no, they will not win.
our eyes left clouded in a veil of
smoke and feet deeply rooted in sin
the stench of blood and blackened skin
because of the abyssal pit of anger they were in
for to them, it meant
more than to live.