By Ishmael von Heidrick-Barnes
Broken Tracks
No trains
arrive Gate 17 Grunewald Station
A red and white gate flung open
exposes splattered stones
Nameless platform
Of dates, places, numbers
Sorrow is a spike
that crumbles buildings
Sorrow is a spike
that extinguishes candles
Sorrow is a spike
splintering wood
Sorrow is a spike
that crushes flowers
liquidates
names
erases faces shoved down tracks
Sorrow is a spike that must be revisited
lest it bleed into rusting forest
Author Note: I wrote and filmed this poem at a memorial located at the Grunewald train station (the Grunewald is near the famous Olympic Stadium where Jessie Owens played).
The memorial was built to remember the estimated 50,000 Berlin Jews who were sent to concentrations camps during WWII. It is constructed on the actual train platform (Gate 17) the Nazi’s used to transport the Jews out of the city.