Dedication for Arrival

•

                                 ve dein tata where is your father
                                 ppp feigele a little bird sings

When they came, they did not come
in darkness, as they did,

they did not come with greased faces,
black with smoke, as they did,

they did not get drunk on wood alcohol
and weep together, before raising long
cumbersome rifles to wager a bullet could puncture

a breast the same as a forehead, as they did,

they did not sing, they did not fight
over gold teeth and tortoise shell combs,
they did not wave torches under
a virgin's pubic hair in the belief

such purity would resist
even the sharpest of fires, as they did

                                   nit du where did he go
                                   ve's er gegangen nowhere he is nowhere to be found

they did not come on horses, they did not
come with a village behind them,
they did not hand the sentinel a necklace
of pearls and cut, bloody fingers,
they did not demand hidden,
nonexistent chests of gold, they did not
force your father's mouth open
and drop hot coals
on his tongue, commanding him to speak, as they did

                                   nach shisele beer he's gone for a saucer of beer
                                   nach shisele beer he's gone for a saucer of beer

they did not leave dozens of small children,
hidden in a rush in the poplar grove,
with delicate glass eyes and glass faces, as they did,
they did not shoot the milk goats
and leave the entrails in the temple, as they did,

                                    vehr vet es trinkeh who will drink it?

They came in the middle of the day,
they came in suits, they knocked on the door,
and read from a warrant, signed by a judge,
and when the children wept, they patted them on the head,
and gave them sweets, and the neighbors
peered from darkened windows
not knowing any prayer but silence, and rumor.

                                       ich mit dier me and you
                                       ich mit dier me and you