Taken. Kidnapped. Pried
from our native domains.
Crammed, like sardines,
together in air-deprived spaces
with familiar faces of my own kind.

Listening,
I heard a cacophony
of howls and breaking bones,
as metal fences enclosed us—
straining and suffocating,
and our last cries cried for freedom.

Hours felt like days,
and days like weeks.
Our future, no longer in our control.
I watched the strongest and most spirited
become lifeless walking skeletons.

The lingering thought haunted us,
day and night—
they kill the weak
and keep the strong.
But to what end?

All my life and spirit,
drained and sucked out of me.
But the only light to my darkness
are those of my blood,
my kith and kin,
my family.

Some say I'm lucky.
Being alive today.
But my past
is forever a part of my shadow,
following...
no…haunting,
me for eternity.

But I am proud.
I am a holocaust survivor,
who is "Free at Last!"
from this bovine Buchenwald.
I am an animal
that escaped the slaughterhouse.