HOLOCAUST HALL OF REMEMBRANCE
Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
A pit, over it a roof that is a chimney.
In the center, an eternal flame
smokes out of scrap metal that’s flesh, scrolls, wreckage.
On the floor the names of camps
fade backward into the smoke.
Theresienstadt, Dachau, Maidanek, Auschwitz.
Every letter is there, Roman and Hebrew,
German umlauts, Polish accents, Hebrew points,
as if saying, not a word, not a syllable
of this long scream shall ever not be heard.
A sign says only, gentlemen please cover their heads.
Your silly tourist hat will do.
There is no sign to say, the abomination, the horror
of a smoking eternal flame.
No sign asks, what oil for this lamp of dedication?
what gold teeth to adorn this awful temple?
Birds twitter in the roof, sing the same song
they sang for the girl Moses married.