Selection: Auschwitz, 1944

Time at Auschwitz nothing
        but blurred nightmares
                days passing     soup or bread

we don't remember eating
        crowded onto wooden pallets
                so many we could only turn

from side to side when all
        turned, shrill kapo voice
                shatters subdued sobs

of morning, dodging kapos
        beating us with clubs
                to the latrine and out

into the freezing morning
        Zaehlappell counting
                prisoners for hours

stand in groups forbidden
        to move a hand or foot
                then one day orders to undress

and stand in front of bunks
        the greenhorns in our group
                blank no idea what's going on

veterans wailing     trying
        to squeeze     hide beneath
                beds the dread selection

for the gas we ran     naked we
        ran around the room
                Gestapo watching pointing

with their sticks     this one
        that one chosen     among them
                by best friend's mother

dragged away     gasping
        for breath     we the survivors
                choking     too stunned to cry