In Seventeen Hundred and Forty Nine <br />A long ago lost relation of mine <br />Sailed from Germany <br />Never to return. <br />Across tormented seas <br />He launched his spirits <br />Cast his dreams <br />To set foot at last <br />On soil Philadelphia <br />And in the decades furling hence <br />His blood traversed <br />At last to me <br />A legacy he could not foresee <br />To be German <br />In the twentieth century. <br /> <br />I look in horror <br />Celluloid clips <br />Detached and yet <br />Somehow connected <br />Of mutilations, deaths <br />Atrocities <br />Committed by an alien hand <br />The bony fingers stretched <br />In accusation <br />My blood revolts <br />Impassioned by the faint “Sieg Heils” <br />Still drumming through the marrow <br />The cold hard stamp of jack boot feet <br />The crisp salutes, heels clicking on cement <br />Jawohl! Jawohl! Jawohl! <br />Sieg Heil! ! <br /> <br />Awakened in the dead of sleep <br />Sweat dripping from the chin <br />Fingers clutch the windpipe <br />Eyes wide in disbelief <br />Six million lie in unmarked graves <br />We weep our disremembered tears <br />And in our righteous seeming fury <br />Cry what devil hath made you German! <br /> <br />‘Twas enough to be a man. <br /> <br /> <br />(Previously published in Ygdrasil, Nov.1999)<br /><br />Laurence Overmire<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/sins-of-the-fathers/
