Now and Then and When

I'm not worthy. Warning, this does revolve around the Holocaust so if you'd rather not then don't.

6 million people

Take everything you know about yourself

Your fears, your dreams, the people you love, the things you never said, your favorite things,

Take that vastness and multiply it

By incomprehensible amounts

This loss is not just a statistic.

It is the people who lived the rest of their lives without the people who brought light to them

The people who had to live never knowing or knowing all too well the people they lost

It is not just the sacrifice

But the heartbreak and struggle in its wake

If you know loss

If you've lost even one person close to you

It's that sort of soul-crushing cannot-speak cannot-breathe 

Blank-look or racked with sobs

Then imagine whole communities

Families

It is not just the people who lost their lives that is tragic

It is the people who lost not their lives but everything

They remain still haunted

Imagine losing your mother.

And your father. 

And your sibling.

And your best friend.

And your girlfriend, boyfriend, significant other.

And the people you wish you'd gotten to know-

They're all dead.

All of them gone, never remembered in person,

And these people had to pick up these shattered pieces of their lives and go on

Some people didn't.

Some people couldn't go on after losing one person in 6 million.

I don't think I could.

It is the collective tragedy

And the losses generations back

And the love lost

And the one person and the many, many, many,  many people

And to think the same kind of hatred still occurs to this day

I'm not mad

I'm not scared

I'm not saddened anymore

No

I'm just empty.

Author's Note

this is AbsoFuckingLlutelyTterribleOhMyGod

Reviews

[RoseThorn]

OMG. This is such a good poem. I relate to this on another level. Thank you for putting into words something I never could

[Phill Oz O'fee]

Oh my goodness, what stirrings this sadly poignant write has upon reading. The definition of ethnic cleansing is; the systematic forced removal of ethnic or racial groups from a given territory by a more powerful ethnic group, often with the intent of making it ethnically homogeneous. We can reflect on the horrors of the past, but we must also remind ourselves this is also happening today – and – it is still inexcusable for Free World countries to allow it to go on! Very interesting and important share … :-)

[Andrea Greene]

Thank you ever so much Mr. O'fee. I really felt it necessary. And yes, what a horrendous thing that it is still occurring.