IMPROVISATION #40
WARSAW GHETTO

Sleep houses
of death walls
amid the grey smoke
it is another day
when stones
under your feet
do not gesture
as you awoke
to thunder
with tired arms 673416
as rains from the gutter
cannot shatter
secret messages sent
now delivered
from the underground
praying that life does matter
widening your
dry bones of two brothers
in a hidden game
of absent children
playing every morning
when a cry goes up
to answer from a breath
of forbidden words
by a ram's horn
with a series
of bleating sounds
on a shameful rampart
as dolls scatter
and shatter in a pile
by a girl at first light
carrying her lamb
and a boy out of breath
steps by step from his sisters
from closed doors
as night splits from dawn
a bird sings.