Concluding Poetry Month 2011
To close poetry month, MQUP presents an excerpt from Singing from the Darktime by S. Weilbach, a compelling picture of a rural childhood in Germany at a time when the world was about to change.
By 1937 Hitler's power was beginning to penetrate the peaceful agricultural village in the Rhine Valley where S. Weilbach lived with her family. Without warning, her carefree life became a scene of bewildering racial abuse, followed by the violent invasion of her home, the arrest of her father, and the disappearance of her beloved grandmother.
Click for more information on Singing from the Darktime
Or listen to an MQUP podcast featuring the author S. Weilbach.
|
One morning on my solitary way Towards the dreaded school, There was a noise we almost never heard – The roaring of a rapid truck. It drove right past And vanished round a bend.
Then as I sat To learn to spell a word, At Teacher’s sudden call The class erupted from their seats, And clustering at the sill, Looked down upon the yard And grinned or laughed. We in the back Were told to rise and look. I barely knew then what I saw – It was so strange It would not fit into my mind: A circle like a children’s game Of fullgrown men I’d never seen before.
They circled in the cobbled yard Around and round and round again. While at the side two men in uniform Looked on and smiled. Until an old man stumbled And a swift, swastikaed arm Dragged him apart. Then he was kneed until he almost fell And pushed to where I could not see.
And in that silent troupe Treading round and round and round again, I thought I saw my father walk With all those other men.
When I came home Our house was quiet, But for my mother’s rapid steps Upstairs from room to room. (Where no one went this time of day.) And when I ran With satchel bouncing at my back To meet my Oma at the stove, Or find her seated on the couch, She was not there. Nor Opa anywhere.
|
No comments yet.