the dachau kid

they call him the dachau kid
for no reason at all, and he
complies

carrying his stick-frame as though
he walks nowhere, to his end,
constantly

not a word to his oppressors,
his compatriots, his friends, his
betrayers

he hides his disappointment with
their lack of historical perspective
brilliantly

one day it is too much, just a
little more than last time, and it
overwhelms

he comes to school no longer, his
compatriots, his friends wonder where he
hides

but he hides not, having nothing to
shadow any more, and they find his
body

in a bathtub with the water
let out, blood dripping down the
drain