Testimony Poem

Picture

Luggage
From the diary of Alice Ehrmann

Night time, nine-thirty
Getting people into cars
The sick, the sick, the sick

Stretchers without end
Luggage everywhere
Everyone has so little
And it will be taken away

Small children come into the room
Screaming
They have their bags
But never again their childhood

All are alone
They walk and are brave
Terribly brave

All have been abandoned to terror
Those who walk turn to stone
Those who remain swallow their tears

In the end, there was no space
Only luggage