THE  NIGHT  THEY  CAME  FOR  NO  ONE

Copyright 2011 by Sam Yulish

Ida Rosenberg, Auschwitz survivor,

strains a muscle in her neck.

She turned too quickly when Queens Police sirens

distracted her Passover Dinner preparation.

This time, no human cattle cars stop on her street.

No fiends of the night interrupt this holiday service

as they did 60 years ago.

Watching the police cruiser through her second story window,

Ida recites the first Passover question silently, fearfully.

MA NEEH TA NA HA LIE LA HA ZEH ME CALL HA LAY LOS?

“Why is this night different from all other nights?”

Different from any previous oppression of fleeing Jew.

Not Moses leading the Hebrew slaves from Pharoh’s Egypt.

Not giant Philistines, Goliath, not Caesar,

not the tortures of a long forgotten Spanish Inquisition.

Not even skin heads, modern Nazis in Skokie, Illinois.

This police car is not for an 80 year old Jew.

This police car can only replay

an indelible 60 year old recording,

the last Passover Ida saw any of her family alive.

As the cruiser drives away,

Ida lights some candles,

places a cloth napkin over her head,

and whispers a Kaddish, prayers for the dead.

Then heads towards the bathroom for Tylenol.