Lines Written After the Funeral of a Holocaust Survivor - Greg Hayes

[Larry Robinson]

Lines Written After the Funeral of a Holocaust Survivor
 
 
In passing over to a brighter side
a good man has left us spirit rich
if body poor—
 
I was privileged to heap one handful of earth upon his grave
returning a favor
 
he was never aware of in life— For no reason,
in his gentle, forgiving way he smiled at me once— Although I cried
to see his young daughter
 
standing helpless over her cold father’s open grave, I knew her grief
would salve her loss some day.
 
 
 
But what of our loss? Who will give us a hand full of earth
when we need it? We live in a culture of death and tattoos
[no stanza break]

 
 
 
 
without meaning, worthy of no respect— the way she looked
two weeks before she died of typhus Anne Frank could sell cosmetics today— the numbers on her forearm
could win you the lottery.
 
 
 
Don’t take the chance.
 
Instead, meet me at the cemetery and we will face the hereafter together,
pay our respects holding hands until
his family has passed by wreathed in mourning
awake at last
 
	- Greg Hayes
		(1952-2014)
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