A Historical Poem that Commemorates the Victims of the Holocaust during WWII

 
I saw them coming
With the black leather boots, so shiny, so cruel
Stomping and shattering the calm of the night
With silver buckles ablazing in this blasphemy of might
 
I heard them coming
With the ominous swish of rifles
That rang eerily in the night
With the mechanical chatter of tongues
That pierced like a dead man’s plight
 
I felt them coming
With the monotonous beat of heavy boots
That rang through the air like the clash of blades
Yet stealth seemed to drive these shiny black boots
With the silver buckles that shone with blood
Would ever, I wonder, the buckles cease to shine?
 
Approach me did the boots, with the treads that falter not.
Speak did the toneless voice, the voice that hesitates not.
Take this badge of shame, wear it or you die.
Embrace this name we give you, use it or you die.
Tolerate this pain we offer you, bear it or you die.
 
Wherefore I asked the neighboring dame
Who wept, ‘Hush, it concerns me not.’
Wherefore I asked the blind beggar
Who whispered, ‘Hush, it helps me not.’
Wherefore I asked the sleeping scholar
Who cried, ‘Hush, it ruins us all.’
 
Return the black boots do,
With their brisk swing, their mechanical twitch
Return the silver buckles do,
Tarnished they are not
For they have been fed
The blood they long sought.
Return does the voice,
With its clipped, harsh tones
 
Speak does the tongue,
With the final words of steel:
Accept this death we choose you
Endure it, or we die.
 
 
I look above the leather boots
The swinging rifle, the shiny buckles
I see a mask of fear, of a human who ceased to be.
 
-          Ayah Gouda