Tattoos 


You can’t stand to see 
Tattoos on todays youth
If they only knew
What meaning a tattoo has for you 

Standing in line 
a child of 8
Waiting for  the tattooist
For his numbers to make

The German Shepard dogs
Walking up and down the lines
The German Nazi  officer
Had no sympathy only hatered  for our kind 

People act as if they are in a daze 
Some not believing this is real 
This couldn’t be happening could it
I suppose it was surreal 

It hurts bad where the needle 
Pierced my skin
Shooting a black ink of death
Piercing my soul within 

Wearing the Star of David 
A yellow star on our sleeve
Now we were marked with ink
Even at 8 I’m in fear of my own destiny 

These numbers that I looked at
For the rest of my life
Remind me of death, starvation separation and great strife 


Auswitz concentration camp
Where I was tattooed at 8
I was selected for forced labor 
Carrying bricks back and forth - I’m now an inmate 

So a tattoo has different meanings 
For you and I
When I see a tattoo 
I’m reminded of the millions of Jews that died



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