fretting about my petty woes
on Holocaust Memorial Day.
Almost 80 years ago
the devil ruled in Europe:
trains which had been used to transport cattle
groaned and screeched with an awful death rattle.
There was no food and just a bowl
as a toilet for the desperate people
crammed so tightly they could only stand.
An elegant finger pointed the way
to either the chamber of horror
where poison gas robbed the victims of breath
or work at the camp...a living death.