To Anne Frank

..................To Anne Frank
 

............................................................................Amsterdam
............................................................................August 4, 1984
Dear Anne;

.........I heard that you were taken away
today,
forty years ago.
And if there's a place
for innocent little tortured souls
to rest beautifully,
I hope my thoughts
can reach you there,
where surely you've
found peace.

.........By the time you left us
the beast was cornered
in his own pit of hateful poison.
I hope at least you knew.
I'm sorry the Liberators
couldn't reach you in time.
They tried; with all their might they tried.
I know you held brave
thoughts and hope to the end:
You were like that.
Raped, beaten and starved
you were stronger
than the fiercest animals
amongst them.

.........Though hidden, or impure,
thank Nature's Gift that such as love
is not uncommon.
And the world cleansed itself,
for a time,
though you couldn't see.

.........In your youth your genius for faith
lay untainted,
even awash as you were,
a small girl, trying to hide in a dark corner
of the darkness,
in a world whose heart had gone steel and lead.

.........Your triumph grows,
for you not only show us unconquerable spirit,
but softly, and with tender courage,
show such can be done.

.........If only you could know
you didn't die a nameless death,
an unheard voice,
a toneless, wordless song.
We hear you,
and see you.
We know you,
for you are within each of us.
You call out,
and gently, and very proudly,
we hear the power
within ourselves.



by Steven P. Pody
Excerpted from 'The Panoptikon'