Auschwitz, 1987 -- Adam Zych

(Translated by Hilda Schiff)
[1945–current, born in Poland, migrated to America in 1990]

and nobody shouts halt,
and nobody fires,
and yet this deathly
silence fills one’s ears

and no one slaps your face,
or whips your back, your eyes,
and no one weeps,
nor do the skies cry out

even though we have arrived
at this well-known place
with its resonant name:
Auschwitch.

Source: Schiff, H (ed.), 1995, Holocaust Poetry, 1st edn, St. Martin’s Press.