Burnt Offering Poem by Michael Burch

for Miklós Radnóti

I met him in the grave
just before he died;
his face was haggard
but his startling eyes
—though terrified—
were gentle, far-seeing,
expressive and wide.

"I have written these poems
for the world, " he said,
"so that when I am gone
still the truth may be read.
Tell my wife how I love her..."
He collapsed there—shot, dead.

But his voice still lives on
with the urgent desire
to repair the world
with compassion, not fire.

Published by Voices Israel