Hear Me

​

Most beautiful one,

The one who loves me like no one else does,

Like no one wants to,

Like no one ever will,

You are all of this to me.

Hear me, watch me bow and straighten

Take three steps back and three steps forward.

Is this beautiful to your sight?

Am I beautiful?

Are you beautiful?  

I declare this aloud,

but

you know it to be true.

Divine one, most beautiful one

The one who lifts me up.

I never thought I could be here

And be beautiful

And speak to you.

 

The ones that came before me,

On ships, in steerage,

Stuck on Ellis Island with chalk marks on their backs.

Gather me up with them, as with 

Sarah, Rachel, Leah

And all the others in between.

My great grandparents who escaped,

My great uncle who died in a concentration camp, 

he was trapped.

He lost you.

 

My dad told me the story of

The only time he saw his father cry:

Reading that letter from someone over there 

With the news that his brother was dead.  Starved, gassed,

I will never know.

My father did not know how to pray, and my grandparents refused to.

I will gather this great-uncle close now

Hold him in my arms, as I am held up

By all of those saying these words with me.

Right now

Hold us 

Lift me up

to say never again

as I hold him, as we hold him,

as we speak to you.