‘CRIES FROM THE FIRES’ by Martin Small and Rachel Olster

I see
Fires blazing from ovens
Smelling strangely
Like the smell of flesh
Can it be?
My eyes cannot see
Dust falls around me
Human souls afire

In the background
Cries of agony
Animal sounds of pain
With human voices
Cries of mama:
My mama!
Children running
Torn clothes
Dragging dolls of paper
Burnt by laughing man

I must be in a nightmare
I stumble
Something in the street
Only to find out
It is my friend
Now a corpse
No face – No name
A strange woman
Picks up the body
Stone-faced
They even took our tears
Menorah’s burn
An old man runs to save
The “Star of David”
From the flames
With the word “Jude”
Written in paint across it

Shame… A Jewish shame
He falls unmoving
The pain is more
Then I can bear to share
Six million people
Children dragged
From their mama’s arms…
I hear the voices screaming
From an unmarked grave
Forget me not… I am you…
Have you forgotten me?

I will remember –
I promise to remember
I am you!
Your cries echo in my heart
I see the smoke escape
From ovens of hate
Insanity prevailed

If we ignore
The horror of before
They will –
- the horrors of now
Forget us not

Be not fooled by peace
Our unmarked graves
Screams to the world
Remember me

I was the past
But the past
If the future revisited
Without you…
To Remember