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LOVE IN A DEATH CAMP
for my Aunt Feigel
by Israel Halpern
Swept along to the train in her pinafore,
Feigel braided her hair for the cattle car.
She found a space on the unwashed corner planks,
listened to the steam engine as everyone swayed.
Last stop, Ravensbruck, arrived with a lurch.
An old woman from her village gave Feigel a carrot.
There was smoke, ashes and darkness.
Guards slammed truncheons into her back.
On her way to the showers, she saw a young man
staring at her, looking away, then looking again.
She smiled at him and lifted her still delicate left hand
so her fingers seemed to wave at him.
He bowed and returned the gesture of three fingers,
and he pantomimed his name and his admiration of her.
She pointed to an imaginary wristwatch and winked one eye,
then grimaced her mute-show of hunger and helplessness.
He indicated on his right hand an imaginary wedding ring,
fluttered his hands over his heart, and pointed at her and then to himself.
They moved closer together whenever they could until, in the soup
line, they spotted among the doomed, a toothless tubercular Rabbi.
For the swain’s socks, they hired the Maggid to marry them
as they trembled in line for the honeymoon chamber.