Holocaust day 2016

History began before I was born;

before air struck the gong of life

into my insignificant life.

Millennia, centuries, decades, years

wrote pages of experience

in chapters we choose to ignore

or pass as fantasy

belonging in parallel universes

and otherworlds.

We mark the anniversaries

with blindness

as the remembrances of others

fade with their dying.

But our world, formed in love,

is tainted and defiled

by pen and sword

and the executions

of bigots.

And on this day.

THIS day,

we celebrate life,

reprieve,

and the opportunity

fail again.

To those who make decisions;

to those who pedal death,

street-sellers of hate and mistrust,

I bequeath history your nightmare

from which you cannot awaken.

In absentia

I wrap my eyes with your image.

I close them and my eyelids filter you,

for you are not here.

My eyes fill

with emptiness

until the water flows.

I wrap my hands with your blouse;

its textures lie

for you are not within.

My hands fill

with emptiness,

a snake skin discard.

So I wrap myself around your neck

close as my favourite necklace

and kiss you goodnight

with absent lips.

Missing you.