THE ELEVENTH COMMANDMENT
In honour of Vimy Ridge Day, April 09.
My poem is below.
The good and the evil.
First World War Monument to victory over the evil.
Second World War “crematorium” ( a sort of mass murder mansion).
Death camp survivors speak.
Heed their words.
Vimy Ridge is but one of hundreds of remembrance days of events in both wars.
Both of these wars, as are all wars, big and small, evil run rampant.
Today, we are on shaky ground. Rebels are rousing.
THE 11TH COMMANDMENT
Seventy-five years have passed
Since freedom came from the
Holocaust, just as the vitriolic,
Destructive venom comes alive—
Again.
Lest we forget.
And often, it seems that we have.
Beware complacency.
Thousands come together at the Gate of Hell
To mark the date. They stand upon the
Doorstep where the echoes of the
Gone still rise from the Hollow, like spectres.
Four survivors speak. But words are not enough.
And the voices of the four admonish us:
“Keep not the silence.”
One speaks of his memory box, memories which
he kept as lessons, constant reminders. But flames
of Hell tortured his resolve.
He threw them into the river to forget.
“Words are not enough,” one says. “Silence does not help.”
Another speaks, another powerful message:
“Do not be indifferent,” he says, his voice the sound
Of wisdom, and he declares this to be the
Eleventh Commandment. Old and frail,
hH begs us, “Let it be so.”
As in ‘Thous shalt not be indifferent.’
And chilling though the killings, the unforgivable
Evil, “Not one survivor,” a third survivor reminds us,
quietly but firmly, with the wisdom of survival,
“Not one survivor ever killed in revenge. Not one.”
But, the memory box man…
The memory box man could not forget.
In the frailty of the weight of hard-earned wisdom,
He speaks, his voice strong with emotion:
“I retrieved my memories, and I
put them in a box, and threw the box into the river.”
Stories of compassion in the House of Death are told.
Lessons to us all. All hail the survivors of the Flames of Hell.
And the memory box still floats down the River Styx.
Their bodies are gone from the living hell, but their souls
reside by the side of The River Paradiso. The spirit lives on.
Remember the Eleventh Commandment:
Thou shalt not be indifferent.
—
I quote these speakers because their messages are vital to our communal survival.
Let there be no evil. In our lives. Beware the inflamed tongue
That incites the evils.
Give your veteran a call today.
— —
With my gratitude to the four and my apologies if I have taken too much liberty in quoting them, and, especially, if I have inadvertently misrepresented them or their words, or who spoke what.
Heart wrenching and very apt in these dark times! Stay safe dear Herb!