Tell Me, Josef

Tell Me, Josef

Do you know that the clouds of summer still
give way to the clear skies of fall, that at

sunset the horizon seems to tumble from blue,
pink, and orange to black ink that spills

across the sky, and do you know that I dream
you were liberated from Auschwitz, that you

returned to Maastricht and visited your friend Paul, and
he returned the leather schoolbag you gave him

the night before you were deported, and
he gave you the four postcards you sent him

from Westerbork before you were sent to Auschwitz, and
do you know that the postcards you wrote

were given by Paul to the Joods Historisch Museum in Amsterdam, and
I found copies on the Internet, and do you know 

I will travel to the museum this January to meet Paul and
see the words you wrote as an eleven-year-old,

the words that are here now in place of you, and
tell me, Josef, do you know that sometimes

in the middle of the night, I look out the window
and watch the sky and

I see rain begin to fall and watch
more fall down? 

These poems are reprinted with permission of CLAL – The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, © CLAL 2007.