Saturday, June 28, 2014




“Worthy”
By: Stephanie DeStephen
                                                   
Stolen today
From my home
Because they say I am
 “life unworthy of life.”
I am too young to even read a book,
yet they say I am inferior, stupid,
so I do not get the chance to see my potential.
I won’t get the chance to go to school,
to live out my childhood days playing, laughing, loving.
I sit here on this bus,
the windows covered
because they are hiding what they are doing
behind closed doors,
yet what these Germans are doing
is permeating
throughout the culture.
 Since they say
I am “life unworthy of life,
I am tested on like a rat
And thrown out like the trash.
The summer wind in 1941,
Should be sweet
Much like the childhood years
Should be
For most children,
However, the wind whispers
A different fate for me,
For I am “life unworthy of life.”
In fact, the whole town of Berlin
Should smell the wind,
For it whispers in the ears of Germans
Of the genocide
They want to ignore.
The black smoke
Vomiting from the chimney
Spews out the remains
Of us they are ashamed of,
Because we are
Supposedly “life unworthy of life.”
They will never know
The future I was capable of.
I could have
Lived happily among them
Created a family of my own,
Had a fruitful career.
I wanted to teach children,
You see.
I wanted to teach them
As my sweet mother taught me.
To respect your elders,
To not hate,
To love your neighbor,
To respect God
And the Earth he created for us,
Yet they say I am “life unworthy of life.”
So today,
As the bus stops on the corner of
Tiergartenstrasse 4
What they refer to as T4,
It is to be my last stop.
The “science” of racism
Will end my young life,
Because they think I am inferior, stupid.
Because they say I am “life unworthy of life.”
After I am used up for their “science” experiments,
I will choke on the gas that stings my lungs
And kills me.
But I will die knowing
Regardless of what they say
That I am
Life Worthy of Life.
I will die knowing
So much more about how to
Live, laugh, and love
Than they do
Even though I cannot even read a book myself,
I know that we need to
Love
Not hate,
That we need to think of all people
As Life Worthy of Life.
And I die hoping that
Someday
Someone
Will figure this out.
My young legacy
Exits the chimney today
Filling the world with a smoke
As dark as the shame
They will feel
When they realize
What they lost.

For I am Worthy.

No comments: