We Said Never Again
We said Never Forget and we did not
but they said it too, held onto their hatred
like a precious heirloom, until they found
each other in by-ways of the internet.
Brave and good people fought them
In battles, on the beaches of Normandy,
In field and forest, sea and sky. After Auschwitz,
we said Never Again but Nazis are back,
to deface our graveyards, to spray a Sabbath
service with machine guns, to murder Jews
at prayer in Pittsburgh. Now we must guard
our houses of worship like fortresses.
After Gettysburg, after all the marches,
the legal battles won, after Montgomery,
Birmingham, Selma, and Little Rock,
They are back with Confederate flags
and torches to take back what was never rightly
theirs to begin with, surge across a college campus
yelling, “Jews Will Not Replace Us,” to mow down
a woman who stood up for justice.
We said Never Again but we knew
they were coming, heard the undertone
of violence in their political rallies. We told
ourselves they were a dark nightmare of history
vanquished forever but generations of old
race hatred; smolder like burning crosses
in their eyes, and like a blaze we thought was
quenched, they burst into flames.
We said Never Again. Now, dazed and weary,
we must keep our promise, to stand against
the sinister déjà vu of their hatred
and fight them once again.
**
Published by Poetica Magazine, finalist in the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Contest for Jewish Poetry
We said Never Forget and we did not
but they said it too, held onto their hatred
like a precious heirloom, until they found
each other in by-ways of the internet.
Brave and good people fought them
In battles, on the beaches of Normandy,
In field and forest, sea and sky. After Auschwitz,
we said Never Again but Nazis are back,
to deface our graveyards, to spray a Sabbath
service with machine guns, to murder Jews
at prayer in Pittsburgh. Now we must guard
our houses of worship like fortresses.
After Gettysburg, after all the marches,
the legal battles won, after Montgomery,
Birmingham, Selma, and Little Rock,
They are back with Confederate flags
and torches to take back what was never rightly
theirs to begin with, surge across a college campus
yelling, “Jews Will Not Replace Us,” to mow down
a woman who stood up for justice.
We said Never Again but we knew
they were coming, heard the undertone
of violence in their political rallies. We told
ourselves they were a dark nightmare of history
vanquished forever but generations of old
race hatred; smolder like burning crosses
in their eyes, and like a blaze we thought was
quenched, they burst into flames.
We said Never Again. Now, dazed and weary,
we must keep our promise, to stand against
the sinister déjà vu of their hatred
and fight them once again.
**
Published by Poetica Magazine, finalist in the Anna Davidson Rosenberg Contest for Jewish Poetry