In the darkness of Dachau
(or it may have been another),
her thin dirty fingers
retrieve a crumb of chewed bread,
shaping it somehow into a petal
no bigger than hope.
Petal by petal
from cramping self-denial
grows rose after rose,
bonsai garden.
Blued with ink,
glued to oval cardboard,
safety pin lashed to its back,
it becomes a brooch.
Kneel in awe:
holocaust jewelery.
I saw it once,
treasured in my mother's palm,
a holy gift.
Alas, it was not
among her things
when she went Home
and the artist's name
went with her.
(or it may have been another),
her thin dirty fingers
retrieve a crumb of chewed bread,
shaping it somehow into a petal
no bigger than hope.
Petal by petal
from cramping self-denial
grows rose after rose,
bonsai garden.
Blued with ink,
glued to oval cardboard,
safety pin lashed to its back,
it becomes a brooch.
Kneel in awe:
holocaust jewelery.
I saw it once,
treasured in my mother's palm,
a holy gift.
Alas, it was not
among her things
when she went Home
and the artist's name
went with her.
Yet thus
from the rubble and mud
of Tohoku-Kanto and Fukushima
history will see
just such brilliant
humbling
flashes of life,
courage,
and beauty.
from the rubble and mud
of Tohoku-Kanto and Fukushima
history will see
just such brilliant
humbling
flashes of life,
courage,
and beauty.
Jessica Reynolds Renshaw
Inspired by "The News, March, 2011," on To Japan, and Our Children with Love by L.L. Barkat, perhaps the first poem to come out of the Japanese tragedy.
Today I am thankful the Japanese holocaust was not caused by man; that there is no foreign enemy to blame or to divide us as the world unites in sympathy and help.
LOTS OF RELATED INFORMATION BELOW:
-More poems
-Specific prayer requests I've received for Japanese people
and links to accounts of earthquake by bloggers in Japan
-Should Americans take potassium iodide?
-Links to my posts on growing up in Hiroshima, our protest voyages against American and
Russian nuclear testing, etc.
-A prayer for Japan
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