Lost

Lost

―for the children of the Holocaust and the Nakba

by Michael R. Burch

Something inescapable is lost―

lost like a pale vapor curling up into shafts of moonlight,

vanishing in a gust of wind toward an expanse of stars

immeasurable and void.

Something uncapturable is gone―

gone with the spent leaves and illuminations of autumn,

scattered into a haze with the faint rustle of parched grass

and remembrance.

Something unforgettable is past―

blown from a glimmer into nothingness, or less,

which finality swept into a corner, where it lies

in dust and cobwebs and silence.

It was my honor and privilege to work with survivors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima on translations of their poems and accounts into English. What they have told us is unutterably sad, and saddest of all is hearing about the lives of children being full of horror and terror, only to be cut short. Unfortunately today Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank are experiencing something similar, a modern Trail of Tears. Keywords/Tags: Holocaust, Hiroshima, Nakba, Gaza, child, children, loss, lost, death, gone, vanished, invisible, dissolved, void, forgotten, nothing, nothingness, silence, farewell, elegy, eulogy, lament, sorrow, grief