Justine Knowles
Ghosts of Krakow
Someone has chalked the outline of a man
Onto a rusted door on Miodowa
But only pigeons live here now
Among the ghosts of sixty thousand souls.
In Kazimierz the courtyards hummed with life
Women gossiped, couples courted, children played
Until the day they came for them with carts
And left Plac Zgody strewn with empty chairs
.
Oswiecim, Plaszow, Sobibor,
The factories of death had pretty names
But when the dirty work was almost done
It was to these few streets the ghosts returned
.
For fifty years they owned this place of shadows
They peered from broken windows, ruined shuls
But now they hear the march of feet on Kupa
And they whisper "Is it time to leave again?"
This time they come for them with tour-guides
They come to mourn the dead they never knew
Drink coffee in Plac Nowy's pretty cafes
Eat Kosher in Szeroka's klezmer bars
When 'luxury apartments' claim the ghettos
And museums hold the secrets and the lies
Will the ghosts of Krakow still haunt Miodowa
Or will there be nowhere left for them to hide?
Page(s) 58
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