two menorahs loosen

memory's chains

and restore the past

at last,

 

here in my head

dark star's velvet scream

is heard but

never seen

leave  the poor

as they were before

footsteps in the snow

 

 Paris 42

and the Gestapo

perform another round-up,

and a seemingly innocent Jew,

Paul Leon,  just visiting,

is tossed into a Mercedes

hard,

 

Joyce's terse and leery words

echo

in his head

'I am dead, I am dead'