Visual Poem

Aves of Auschwitz - A Visual Poem Commemorating the 70th Anniversary of Its Liberation by Soviet Soldiers

Aves of Auschwitz

Along Mississippi’s river road,

at the stroke of full moon midnight,

winter’s wind whips

a coven of crows;

midnight-hued ash flakes,

Corvus chorus

cawing

swirling

whirling

fiercely descending,

peppering the ancient ash tree

like so many beastly ornaments -  

a spontaneous memorial marking seventy years

since other dust stopped raining over Oświęcim.

Were any trees left in Poland?

Or were all hewn to stoke ovens reducing humanity to slag?

This murder of crows fractures my evening

Robbing the respite of this ordinary drive.

©Susan Schaefer

3/5/15