Lausanne June 21,1944 (Song For My Birth) Poem by Marc Radzyner

"From May 15 until July 9,1944, almost half a million Hungarian Jews
were deported to Auschwitz. Most were killed on arrival.'


I was born upon that day
nearly at the end of war
a short train ride away
midsummer of the year

my mother said the sun was warm
in this town by the lake shore
the people assuredly without harm
when I was born

between clean sheets my mother lay
blood dripped from flasks into a tube
after much turmoil, from far away
soulage at night soulage their voices soothed

my lips were crimson petals, my hands caressed
her fragile old-bride skin,
my raven eyes sought strange new worlds
no trains, or family, or desperate origins

the sky was fine like threaded silk
the earth was warm like fresh made bread
the best and worst that can be said,
life flowed through me like purest milk