When Max walked he tottered <br />the left leg shriveled at birth <br />a good six inches <br />blamed the Germans <br />because they tortured <br />his grandfather at Bergen- Belson <br />the tormented genes <br />never recovering <br />tainting his father, now him <br />said I didn’t see the connection <br />told me the story: <br />a guy took some rubber <br />from a broken conveyor belt <br />for the bottom his tattered shoe <br />the SS found him <br />bitter cold that day <br />stripped him naked <br />feet seized by a pail of water <br />the prisoners watching all this <br />at twilight <br />left him there <br />at dawn <br />liquid now solid ice <br />incredibly the man still alive <br />then blew a hole through his heart <br />no blood <br />too frigid to flow <br />Max’s grandfather <br />unable to breathe <br />terror too much for him <br />more to come <br />a simple death not enough <br />for the SS <br />so shot off the dead man’s ear <br />and crippled Max <br />for life.<br /><br />Charles Chaim Wax<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-barbarians-were-beaten-down-but-too-late/
