Dachau

there was no need to be told of the jewish custom whereby rocks are placed near graves instead of flowers (eg lilies in the place of the barracks we found an ocean of stones - larger than a fist smaller than a child's head just big enough to force one to walk more slowly than normal & to think with each step about a person who has passed on nothing is expected of us except understanding (& an opening towards knowledge - like the burgers of dachau whom american troops forced to march through these gas chambers saying look! look this happened in your town rocks grow in every country this world is filled with graves - one day they will return us to the rivers & smooth our sharp edges over centuries of soothing (easy for me to say on windy days i think of anton music who drew pictures of his living hell in charcoal & who is known today as the "dachau artist" born in slovenia & a student of fine arts in venice arrested & sent here only for his talents to be rediscovered it's chilling but necessary to look upon his ghost lines of tangled limbs & to know his words: "we are not the last ones"

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