Once filled with bones and flesh,
pulsating blood,
a pair of shoes,
once worn when waiting
for a piece of bread
for the train
for beginnings and this end
of being sorted left or right
Now laced together, paired
waiting with the other shoes,
for feet now turned to ash.
Majdenak
Kim hosts dVerse today and the subject is shoes. Write a poem about a pair of shoes. what is their story or maybe your story. My choice was to write a reminder of how memories of atrocities can be.
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The image adds another dimension to this poem. Chilling.
Oh how this causes my heart to weep. You have been on a roll since your return. I lost relatives I have never met in the Holocaust or had relatives forever scarred by their survival. This brings to mind Cameron’s remarks when videos of the Titanic came to light…the shoes left behind on the floor of their icy grave, the dead eaten or borne away by the tides.
A very deep, and sad story. Oh, the horrors that each pair could tell. Chilling to the bone. Great write.
This is so powerful, Bjorn, chilling and a reminder. Lines that touched me deeply are:
‘once worn when waiting
for a piece of bread
for the train’
and
‘waiting with the other shoes,
for feet now turned to ash’.
The horror of it all. Well expressed.
A couple of years ago I learned, to my gasping disbelief, that a teacher in a town neighboring my city was teaching his students the holocaust never happened. We must NEVER forget the atrocity. Your photo and words are heartrending.
In many part of Europe he would be sent to jail for such teachings.
Sent a chill through me! I love your take on the theme
An amazing write!!!
It’s hard to follow that one, Bjorn. Never forget.
Good reminder of atrocities with that pile of shoes.
Wow. A chilling poem.
Oh this breaks my heart…I teach about this often and those suitcases and glasses and teeth and shoes.
Whew. I was not ready for this. Goodness. So well crafted, and a punch in the gut. As all things holocaust should always, always be. May we never forget.
powerful, upsetting, and well done.
Randy
A chilling take on the prompt..
Mon Dieu, this is so powerful and heart-wrenching, Bjorn. Those dark moments in our history must be kept alive so that they don’t happen again. Poetry is a most effective way to do it.
kaykuala
waiting with the other shoes,
for feet now turned to ash.
War-time aftermath that can be most destructive to the civilian population. True in any forms of conflicts!
Hank
(managed to get thru’ Bjorn)
It is doubly terrible that even without the image no explanbation was needed.
this is haunting.
You captured it… This is a haunting photo – I also was at the Holocaust Museum (I think 3 times now) and they have a display of shoes… the smell go to me – but I stayed and really looked at each shoe… so so sad.
that breaks my heart… very well written björn
there is nothing as evocative of death as a pair of empty shoes – multiplied it becomes atrocity:
“Now laced together, paired
waiting with the other shoes,”
I can’t even begin to handle poetry like this, but the first three lines are particularly strong.
Powerful … your words shock … as indeed, such atrocities should shock … even years later: such atrocities should shock.
This stirs my heart
What a great but sad topic for this prompt. The pile of shoes makes me think of all the stories that they represent.
Chilling and heartbreaking poem, Bjorn. Not all shoes are worn lightly.
That was truly a sad poem but it brought about emotions so beautifully!
Very well written.
I’ll never forget the roomful of shoes at Yad Vashem holocaust museum in Jerusalem…victims of Nazi hate, casualties of war’s evil.
I read this before seeing the image. Oh the difference one photo can make to the interpretation! Eerily vivid. At first, I was repulsed by the pulsating blood, then inrealized, repulsed is the appropriate sentiment.
This grabs like a knife in the heart.