At Yad Vashem

At Yad Vashem

[Memory of Names - The Holocaust Museum, Jerusalem] 

Cruelty and compassion

Are concretized at Yad Vashem

The holocaust snatched the living joy

The compassionate too swirled

In agonizing infliction

Of the mad man's craze

Of racial purity, psychic complexes,

Snare of sanctifying abusive killing of innocence

He borrowed a sacred Hindu symbol

With its ancient name

Swastika, a benedictory image,

Defiling it with his demonic rage

Mesmerizing people by his oratory

Blinding the wise and the fool

Engaging them in his wily ways, words of hatred

They could not see

Though their eyes were open---

It was hard to breathe

In those triangular halls

A remarkable architecture to concretize

Pain and hatred

With its skeletal doors, pointed daggers

Piercing our  consciousness

Sadness numbed the tongue

Even  tears refused to roll

At the sight of

Sheer spectacle of heinous inhumanity

Silent screams seared through our hearts

We walked out mute

Shocked,

Revisiting yet another chapter

Of human loss of dignity, honor and life!

------------------------
In Children's Museum

I could not hear a child's scream

A woman's anguished roar

Million thundering cries.

In silence we walked

Through a mirrored hall of lights

Names remembered

Of silenced voices.