We were ruled by delusion.
Suddenly faced with absolute evil,
We trembled in the slaughterhouse.

Watching the flames,
We were face-to-face with the Angel of
.
Condemned.

Alone in the ashes
Sealed in by barbed wire.
No escape.

Men, women, children dying.

No prayers said.
No tears left.

The world’s eyes
Opened too late.
All that was left was
Thick, dirty smoke.

Special Note: This is what my teacher calls a "found poem". All of the phrases, or parts of the phrases, are found in the nonfiction book Night by Elie Wiesel (his firsthand account of the Holocaust). I have put them in poetry form and altered them slightly to make them my own. For instance, "in hermetically sealed cattle cars" and "barbed wire encircled us" (from the book) became "sealed in by barbed wire" (a line from my poem). The poem itself is my original work.