Auschwitz Rose
                                                                                                                                               
There is a Rose at Auschwitz, in the briar,
a rose like Sharon's, lovely as her name.
The world forgot her,
                                   and is not the same.
 
I love her and would not forget desire,
but keep her memory exalted flame
to justify the thistles and the nettles.
 
On Auschwitz now the reddening sunset settles;
they sleep alike–diminutive and tall,
the innocent, the "surgeons."
                                               Sleeping, all.
 
Red oxides of her blood, bright crimson petals,
if accidents of coloration, gall
my heart no less.
                            Amid thick weeds and muck
there grows a rose no man shall ever pluck
till he beds there, and bids the world "Good Luck."