Fiore

Mike

Scared

Should I go outside? They will see me. “Bang!” I am gunned down By the Gestapo.

Businesses torn away from people. Is mine next? Forced into the black market.

This yellow star follows me everywhere. This yellow star is my name. This yellow star defines me, Not as a person.

Walking down the streets, Bodies are all I see. They hang from cranes And cry for help Yet I can’t do anything.

Every Jew being stripped of their home, And their pride. Nazis ship us off in trains. Rumors we are going to work in vineyards. Doesn’t sound too bad.

Trucks packed with Jews. Where we are going now? I’m not sure. The truck doors open and I see a sign, “Auschwitz.” I’m scared.

Rationale: I chose the word “Scared” because there was not a single Jew at the time that was not scared of being killed by the Nazis. There was always that fear of “what if they catch me?” The word I chose came directly either from //Maus// or were from //The last Days.// My poem was about a Jew who owns their own business and takes place at the start of the Holocaust. They hear that Nazis are killing all the Jews in Europe and destroying anything that deals with Jews.