Whispers of the Lost (Holocaust Remembrance Day)

The trains don't run here anymore The iron tracks are rusted red And silence screams beneath the floor Where shadows tucked the children into bed I found a photo in the dust A faded grey, a smile so wide Before the world betrayed its trust Before there was nowhere left to hide And the snow falls down on the birch tree line Covering the scars of a broken time Can you hear the prayers in the winter air? Are they still hanging there? Oh, light a candle for the names we never knew For the mothers holding tight, for the fathers passing through It’s a river made of tears, it’s a mountain made of ash It’s the silence of the shoes in a pile of broken glass Remember them, remember them Before the dark returns again. They packed a suitcase full of hope A violin, a wedding band But hope turned into smoke and rope Upon this frozen, godforsaken land I walk the path the millions walked I touch the wire, cold and sharp And listen where the spirits talked Plucking at the heartstrings like a harp Six million stars ripped from the sky Six million reasons to ask why Never again, we say the words But are they just whispers? Are they ever heard? For the names we never knew! For the breath inside the lung, for the old and for the young! It’s a river made of tears, it’s a mountain made of ash It’s the silence of the shoes... In a pile of broken glass. Remember them.