Last Train To Auschwitz

Family love is born in little rooms, around sofas, settees, dinner plates, with paternal bond that strengthens and grooms, unswerving link that lasts till heaven’s gates! We were such family in a French town, traditional, true, religious us four, mother was good at making wedding gowns, father a decorator ran paint store! Sister and I watched German troops on streets, Tuesday August year nineteen forty three, parents held us close, could hear their heartbeat, that was the last day we would all be free! Dragged on to street by the Nazi soldiers, our father was punched kicked and beaten blue, we wept helpless, clung to mother’s shoulders, that was the last of our father we knew! Pulled away from mother and Sis I cried, screaming imploring, no mercy, no heart, that day for me when humanity died, was day my family was torn apart! Packed in a train suffocating with stench, alone defeated waited journey’s end, with dead and dying that made stomach wrench, four days of thirst and suffering to spend. I remember that train to Auschwitz well, journey that destroyed many lives like mine, where our love and hope to tyranny fell, to death we were paraded in a line! Six months past we heard exchange of fire, that made evil enemy pack and run, We were all rescued from behind barbed wire, was still hope and goodness under the Sun! When God smiles he smiles generously well, lifts suffering souls from bottomless pit, That day he was smiling we could all tell, his eyes perhaps gleaming and face well lit! Each life and hope with dignity restored, we were treated, bathed clothed and given food, In room of people saw face I adored, sobbing with outstretched arms my mother stood! United with mother back to my house, and years of togetherness we would share, on the wall hangs our striped prisoner blouse, to tell trappings of hatred and its snare! The train to Auschwitz took many to death, guilt ridden, to and fro ran that train, but tracks remain, hate may creep back in stealth! train to Auschwitz should never run again! Premier contest 6th placement Written 09/April/2021 10 syllables each line (PS syllable count) based on a true story as related by a 93 yr old Auschwitz survivor The last train to Auschwitz poetry competition Kai Michael Neumann sponsored