Today I am highlighting one of the poems from Lee Bennett Hopkin's newest book America at War. The poem is Alphabet. And it is by Jane Yolen. I am doing Poetry Roundup.
Alphabet
by Jane Yolen
What is the alphabet of evil?
Auschwitz,
Buchenwald,
Chelmno,
the names of camps
rolling off the tongue,
the tongue lolling in the mouth,
the mouth hanging open,
broken teeth,
a gasp of breath,
the alphabet of death.
What is the alphabet of evil?
Dachau,
Esterwegen,
Flossenberg,
Gurs,
the names of camps,
cramping the stomach,
the stomach drained of blood,
blood, staining the ground,
a last breath,
the alphabet of death.
What is the alphabet of evil?
It begins with Adolph Hitler,
goes to the Zondercommandos
ends with the ordinary citizen
turning in his neighbor,
a sheckle for a traitor,
a groat for a Jew.
What is the alphabet of evil?
Small letters
we all know how to say,
and hope we are never asked
in our ordinary lives
to say them. (35-36)
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