The Nazis and Us

Lest we forget the hands and eyes

That plundered lives -

Those Fascist hands and eyes

That freely plucked the lives

In a formal casual administrated abomination

Churlish in decadence and carelessness

With the hats and badges and nothing else fathomable.

Lest we forget:  This hand and eye

Writes and reads - 

This free hand and stern eye

That recalls and tells

How the formal administration casually served up

With relish, a hope of a final solution

A universal death in neat typewritten lists.

Lest we forget this hand and eye

That might turn upon us all -

This hand to twist and eye to glaze

Turned to the Fascist way

Grim reaping and treading through the living world

Closed and charging with blackened might

Pushing death to succeed with a blazing distorted right.

Lest we forget the hands and eyes

That are blown away -

Those child’s hands and eyes

Blasted and plucked

In the blind indifference of the rocket blast

Sent by the boiling blood of a Fascist heart

Against the boiling blood of Fascist hearts.

Lest we forget our hands and eyes

That are led and fed by Grace -

These our own hands and eyes

Treasuring all lives

Those we cannot see linked small and large

In families wrapped precious along the land

In our world of life where we are taught to be free.

Colin Morgan