A Poem for Yom HaShoah, Observed Amid a Global Heath Crisis

April 21, 2020Lucie Waldman

Today especially
i am grateful for a life to call mine
the bright sunshine
on a day we remember when millions died

people just like me and you
with sparks in their souls
never imagine a candle
being lit for them on a day thats not their birthday

the candle is the light of their hearts
the waxy tears they shed
once their life was filled with dread
because of the simple ‘crime’ of being different

their life became filled with yellow
and not the light of the sun
but on the starts that couldnt be undone
plastered to their shirts, not on the sky

i remember the light once
in their eyes
piles of writing on fire that won a prize
and the dreams that were smashed like glass

remember this quarantine is not the Holocaust
as this pandemic targets no one
we are in our own home
waiting for normal life to eventually resume

today i am living freely for those 
trapped behind barb wires
that couldnt live out their desires
because the world set innocent lives on fire

For ways to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day, see "7 Ideas for Observing Yom HaShoah from Home." 

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