The 13^th WR

THE VICTIM

He lives now
in a suburb of New York,
a place far from the barbed wire and boots.
A musician,
his words are music,
orchestrating his life of
high Hillels and Hatikvahs
that drown out the memories
of snarling dogs and morning calls,
of bare feet in the snow,
in a time when some
had to wash in their own urine
and eat their own bandages to survive.

Somewhere in the pit,
during a crescendo of Les Miserables,
the audience, choked with tears,
watches the stage
while his violin sings,
and he hears,
over the oven's roar,
over the piled bodies,
a young boy pleading with the guard
for the one still moving,
the one who was still alive

- Peter Scheponik