2022 Poetry Second Prize Winner

The Sky Remembers – An Auschwitz Poem

by Miz Cravitz

The sky remembers

the cattle cars packed to the brim with bodies,

each belonging to a person, a family, a story.

The sky remembers

watching them march along the mud covered earth,

as they entered the place they will not return from.

The sky remembers

the cold, disease ridden air that filled their barracks,

as children cried for their mothers

who were too weak to comfort them.

The sky remembers

the lies

of resettlement,

of work that will set them free,

of warm showers and soup when they are done.

The sky remembers

their screams,

their final breaths,

the smoke of their bodies being burned.

Oh how the sky cried at the scent of that smoke.

And even now

that the tears of the sky have washed away the blood stained bricks,

and the diseased air,

and the ashes that remained,

The sky remembers.