THE COLLAR OF MY COAT
Mother wanted me to be warm
during the cold wither months.
She bought me an imitation
fur-lined collar for my ordinary
Sears-Roebuck winter coat.
But to the local German-American
Nazi kids, I looked like
another fat Jew they should
take care of. They grabbed me off
the street and found a tree in the
woods, and dragged me to the back of Mount Olivet Cemetery.
Overpowered, terrified, they tied me to that tree, and painted a huge
swastika on the back of my new coat.
I would eventually learn there were many more victims
far worse
I saw what happened to Jews during the war years
I saw it all unspool at the RKO
On the newsreels every Saturday
At the Maspeth Movie theatre.
But, for me, during the year of 1938, it all began
Because of the imitation fur-lined collar of my coat.