Undone
Undone, my Holocaust remembrance poem, won first prize in the 16-18 category in the Somerset Anne Frank creative writing competition of 2017. You can read the whole thing below:
What is done cannot be undone,
But rivers flow through forest dens children have made.
What is done cannot be undone,
But sunlight washes concrete builds in earnest gold.
What is done cannot be undone,
But vines sponge old tracks, pulling them to decency.
What is done cannot be undone,
But stones lie engraved, a grave, times marked misguided.
What is done cannot be undone,
But trees are rooted where bodies lay in damp heat.
What is done cannot be undone,
But Bergen-Belsen barbed wire rusts; it’s buried, now.
Scholars learn victim’s hardships, teaching, subduing.
What is done cannot be undone,
But we can prevent it from happening again.
Entrants were given the prompt “what is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again,” a quote from Anne Frank herself.