Geese
for Lynn Freed
When the Germans beat their geese
into honking at Auschwitz
so as not to allow the cries of children
on their way to the gas chambers to be
heard, they made a strategic decision.
Like generals, they decided it wasn’t enough
to gas the children, but that the geese, too
(both the Jewish and non-Jewish ones)
had to be punished, they decided to let
one suffering drown out the other, creating
a kind of hierarchy. There were no bird guides
available to those listening, it might just as well
have been joyful honks those geese were uttering,
after all it was spring, the daffodils were out,
the children marching toward their destinies,
all was right in the world, if only you didn’t listen
to what was there below the surface, if only you
didn’t hear the honking, and then the silence after.