The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 10/23/08

[BlueIris]

"Hitler's Girlfriend"

I might have been Hitler's girlfriend. Maybe
in a speakeasy the slow clack
of his lighter lifted to my cigarette, maybe Adolph
even had a joke. Once the henchmen
would have impressed me, the unusual
moustache. In my youth I might have borne
any insolence, might have taken the lack
of smiles for a sign of brute
and sexual strength.

And the long climb up toward convincing
the self: all hardships his hardships; I didn't know
whose trouble mattered, whose
regret. O the long journey
toward ordinary kindness.

There were those among the rows of Jews
on the black line of train cars
who were told they were going on holiday; women checking
their rouge. There were those among them

who began to understand: men sat
in the sway, in the dark, dark
pressing through
the night. We sat on our suitcases and wept
like old women.

—Terri Ford