I listened

to both of them
speaking to me
through the veil
of the darkening years,
their words pinning me
helplessly to the ground.
He had witnessed his family
taken in the selection,
and later
rained down upon him
in gray ash.
And the One Whose Name
Must Never Be Spoken had ceased
to exist at that moment.
She stood at the gates of Birkenau
with tears of gratitude in her
joyous eyes, feeling an
overwhelming closeness
to Him, and knowing for the
first time how the Lawgiver
had felt seeing that which
was beyond sight.
And I realized
in hearing them
that there were arguments
in which I had no right
under heaven and earth
to say anything.