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Shades of a Diary

By Sha O. Kling

Unspeakable evil
striking terror
across thunderous roars of dismay
robbing Innocence of purity,
raping into destruction
worlds once calm
words screaming, seeking, searching
for a bit of good news although
no one realizes how bad things
have become outside;
Waiting
Wondering
Will the tears ever dry?

Yet voices sweet and clear
ring out messages
in Hope's world
of a life far, far away,
in a world of plain fun
laughing so hard it hurts and
holding onto a father's wish
of going with his family
to the seashore for the whole day
with air as fresh as the wind itself
and eating the best latkes you ever tasted
or going to Berkhof's for cream cakes;

Sweet, faint world of Hope.
A world of boys and their first razors
As young girls dream of first kisses and
of dancing all over the room in
new dancing shoes......safe in Dickens' world,
trying to remember how life used to be;
Thinking back to a time when a New Year
was something to look forward to.

Ribbons from ballet shoes
form pirouettes to faint strands of Mozart
drifting from a mother's music box
like courage in an annex just before
Miep's sun begins to shine,
Menorahs, beautiful and brave,
light Hope over flickering Hanukkah candles
willing strength into
shattered walls and women's wails
Waiting
Wondering
Will the tears ever dry?

All to remember terror's darkest night
of creaking staircases in the rain
and to feel the suffering of millions
.........and never to forget
      ...but to speak
each eventide and morn
and to show over marquees far and wide
a young girl's voice
echoing like hidden stars,
      in spite of everything, people are really good at heart.
With curtain call, a cling to prayers unsaid, unsung
Waiting
Wondering
If words said here will help each day
to dry away the tears.

Sim shalom tova u'vrachah
chain vo'chesed v'rachamim
Olainu v'al kol yisroel amechoh.