(Poem: Spring 2008 (Rev. 21.5.20))
Originally written as a song when I was much (much…!) younger, this piece still resonates with me today. Explicit links to the holocaust and other genocides are fairly obvious throughout, with a similarly strong anti-war sentiment. Beneath that, though, is similarly an attempt to grasp at a feeling that modern society is itself (or at least might be) a long pathway to a place that we don’t really want to get to as a society – nor as individuals. Perhaps it is a warning, perhaps a reflection… perhaps both or neither.
Walking down past the old railroad,
Destruction painted in the very name,
Where in the flames they were consumed,
And left there, writhing, crying out in pain.
But I keep walking on and on,
With a peace that they could never obtain,
And, with sombre tears, I pass alone.
Then I see your face,
And I know it’s all lost.
Later on, down the same road,
On the horizon I see a distant cloud,
and suddenly, like a swarm in front of me,
a hoard of people gather around.
But all of them are blind,
And cannot hear the sound,
Of death forging on ahead.
Then I see your face,
And I know it’s all gone.
Opening, slowly, the heavy gates,
I see a living hell,
Smell the burning souls, tortured,
With no voices left to tell
Of the horrors that happened there.
Somewhere in the darkness I hear a bell,
Signalling a change that comes too late.
Then I see your face,
And I know that I’m to blame.
AHF Writes 