EUROPEAN TEACHER

After the brown shirts
there is little culture
a spittle from the hurts
of a teacher
featured in the comics
of a thousand years
missing the sad brilliant eyes
of unexpected laughter,
our memory will live after
when our children are gone
the disappeared once passed away
by the blackboard
in the silent snow
like swans on the Rhine
their papers withdrawn
drawings, dispatches,star letters,
hidden in cold cellars
forbidden to inquire
with Heine, Einstein
or Eisenstein
even with a comment
without becoming bloodied
among the remnant
who remain
as old slogans and salutes
are presented
in grey business suits
others play toy soldier
or boys grow bolder
with patches
from grandfather's shoulder,
happiness overstated
their art overrated
jaded by war's madness
snatches of book burning
has been recreated
from the matches
of learning
in the film school archives
there is the silence of fools
in the last dives
along Weimar's streets
one voice survives.