tears splintering the night
(for adira tiferet nesya)

by:carol rose

after dinner our friends go to see shindler's list.
you want to go too. how will i ever know?
i want to go with them, i want to know everything,
your eight year old voice trembles. how
many tmes will i have to repeat this story? how
can i tell my children the truth without passing on
the nightmares, abandoned suitcases, sabbbath candle-
sticks blackening in ss warehouses, photographs, hundreds
of vanishing faces, their eyeglasses mountain-high, their
shoes piled to heaven, jewish soles waiting for owners
to return, waiting at train stops & deathcamps. maybe
tonight i'll just tell you about the bread, challah loaves
stuffed with gems, swallowed in haste (like passover
matzah). maybe then you'll understand why i can't let you
go, eyes shining like diamonds, tears splintering the night

---

anne's story (for Anne Szumigalski)
by: carol rose

she sits on the sofa
her cane balanced against the wall
nearest the frontdoor
her eyes turned inward to the rock
she carries in her chest
wherever she goes victims
of war still telling their tales
fifty years later
little brown bars

washing the wounded
human flesh turned to soap
she wonders if her hands
will ever feel clean again
or if the rock will finally lift
when she tells what she knows