NEVER AGAIN

Happy families are all alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

Leo Tolstoy

My family was like other happy families

before mindless violence engulfed my world.

Out of a farcical political campaign

fiery words flash echoes of “Never again!”

I hear a rumble of Alaskan secessionists

like SS Runen, chanting “Fairbanks uber alles.”

In a bout of somaesthesia,

Auschwitz lice crawl

up and down my back..

I cover my ears,

drowning out screeching brakes

and hissing steam.

Rottweilers bark and snarl,

lunging at a line of shadows.

I see little stars of David

float over barbed wire fences,

taking their place in a constellation of stars.

I’m in a triple-decker bunk bed,

cold and shivering,

too weak to get up and stop dreaming.

Nauseous with dread,

there’s so much I don’t understand.