Poem 8 - "The Youngest Grave in Warsaw"



The Youngest Grave in Warsaw
Avigayil Rosensweig


Verdant clumps cling to rough stone
Leeching life
From its cracked gray skin

Overfill grooves
Which summarize a life
Incongruous lushness
In the settlement of the dead

Tombstone rising slantwise out of dirt
As though pushed from beneath
To feel the brisk winds

Weather-beaten, mottled gray
Edges lined with sunlight
Bearded with moss
Words spongey with greenness

*

פ"נ
אשה צנועה חשובה
ועשתה צדקה וחסד
מ' טאבא מלכה פערל
ב"ר שמשון
א"ר שמשון הלוי
וואקסמאן
נפטרה כ' חשון
ת"ש
ת נ צ ב ה

Here lies
A modest woman of note
Who acted with charity and kindness
Toba Malka Perel
Daughter of R’ Shimshon
Wife of R’ Shimshon HaLevi
Waxman
Deceased 20th of Cheshvan
5700

*
                    
November 2, 1939
After the invasion, but before the ghetto
Carved onto a crooked tombstone in a cemetery in Warsaw
A real graveyard, not the metaphorical one that was Eastern Europe
Where flesh and blood expired, stone remains

It must be one of the youngest graves in Warsaw, someone said
Jewish graves, they meant
Single graves, they meant
Marked graves
How many after that got a headstone?

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