On Wednesday I visited the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C.. This poem is a tribute to those who endured the suffering as well as those who have lived to tell about what happened.

Horrors unspeakable

taken place in our world

voices silenced by fear

truth softly spoken

too quiet to hear

Where were the voices

to speak up for us?

Where was the light

when all was dark

shivering in the night?

hopelessness as barbed wire

tightened around hearts

cut off from homelands

existing as shadows

when death made its laugh

over our melting bodies

our starving hearts

quietly we faded

out of sight

out of mind

til our story was found

and our terrors told.

long after years passed

stories became old

but for those who remember

keep our stories alive

the deeds have been done—

but memories still survive.

As I walked around the museum, I was…