The Shoes.

Anny Horowitz's shoes at Auschwitz.

The shoes were placed

row on row,

 

large and small,

some with laces,

 

some without,

black and brown.

 

If shoes could speak,

if their leather tongues

 

could pronounce words,

what hard histories

 

they could tell,

what deep sadness

 

they could relate,

and there at Auschwitz,

 

Anny Horowitz’s shoes

lay silent, cast off,

 

forcefully abandoned,

left to their fate,

 

no history told,

no biography to relate.