A poem I wrote years ago that was in response to Elie Wiesel's Night.

People who know me know how much I love to read and I love finding cool books in stores.  I happened to be vacationing in Boston and went to a really cool college bookstore right next to Harvard University and found a great edition of Night.  I started reading it that day and I couldn't stop.  I just kept reading as I was sucked in by the gripping details and I was fully absorbed by the time Elie and his father were running in the snow all night long.  So here is the response:

My Night

My tears never end

I’ve been running for so long

The guard’s curse commands to run

Run we do, but not as people

We have become savages

Only wanting to survive

We have stopped praying our prayers

Animals -- that is what we are           

My only thought is of food

I can no longer think of a God

I see my brothers and my father

We run together in a pack, like wolves

All of us are thin and dried

Our feet no longer feel

They are burned, and this is the Sahara

Or better yet, our hell

We no longer need our eyes

Instinct took over long ago

Do as you are told, and you may survive

I forget what we are surviving

I vaguely remember a church

A people who loved all

Love, what is that?

Now hate, I know that, but love...

I forget

Hunger -- that is what’s left

Only thing is, sand provides little

All I have are my tears to drink

We are ordered to stop

There is a shift change of guards

Their vehicles glide over and hover

Their suits of red look so endearing

I know they have air conditioning

We have the earth, and her winds

Yet here, they pick up the sand

Then we shed, and bleed, becoming fades

That reminds me of spirits

Ah, I remember a God

One I used to worship

And here I weep, hoping for his love.

© T.S. Graveline