I Did Not Know What I Would Find by Serena Joy

The quietness – the beauty of landscaped pathways
with boldly bright flowers
cloaking the greenest of green lawns.
I stop to read words on the blood red brick arch
“Arbeit Mach Frei” (Work sets you free).
Turning right
I behold
a giant earthen burial mound
covering thousands and thousands of unnamed bodies
burnt in ovens
dead or alive.

The furnace room looms blood red brick.
Slowly,
so slowly – we enter.

Brick ovens sized for people.
Rusty ashy wheelbarrows.
Oddity in midst of such horror

Green fir wreaths flowered
with purple Chrysanthemums and blue Forget-Me-Nots
placed before the gaping mouths of the furnaces.

Lest we forget
the evil we do
to others.