Today, 1 September 2024, marks the 85th anniversary of Germany’s invasion of Poland, which ignited the Second World War. On this day, known in Poland as “Dzień Weterana Walk o Niepodległość Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej” (Veterans Day of the Fight for Independence of the Republic of Poland), we pay tribute to the soldiers and civilians who sacrificed their lives in the fight against invasion. The importance of freedom and swift responses to aggressors cannot be underestimated, as our history shows and as recent events continue to demonstrate.
My poem:
I am the cobblestone beneath their feet,
witnessing the unraveling of a nation’s tapestry.
1939, wrzesień (September):
Laughter of children playing hopscotch
fades
into the rumble of Panzer tanks.
Rewind:
1938 – A family picnic by the Wisła,
the scent of pierogi mingling with wildflowers.
(A thread of normalcy, soon to be pulled.)
Fast forward:
Bombers overhead, their shadows like dark needles
stitching fear into the fabric of Warsaw.
I feel their footsteps –
halt-MARCH-halt-MARCH-stumble
The steady rhythm of invasion
Echoes of a lullaby from an open window
(Śpij kochanie, śpij…)
drowned by air raid sirens
Unravel, Poland, unravel:
Your cities
Your people
Your dreams
A chessboard nation:
Pawns scattered
Kings toppled
Queens in hiding
Rewind again:
August 31st – The taste of the last peaceful summer plum
lingering on a child’s tongue
Jump cut:
September 2nd – That same child,
eyes wide as saucers,
watching his world burn
Zygmunt, 7, Jewish:
“Mama, why are we packing our życie (life) into suitcases?”
Maria, 82, remembers:
“The softness of my husband’s hand
as we watched our świat (world) crumble.”
Unravel, Poland, unravel:
Your language
Your culture
Your future
The cobblestones remember:
Every drop of blood
Every tear
Every whispered prayer
Stitch by stitch, the tapestry frays:
Gdańsk to Kraków
Poznań to Lublin
Wszystko (everything) falls apart
But threads remain, stubborn, unbroken:
Resistance
Hope
The will to survive
2024: I am still here, cobblestone witness,
feeling the echoes of those footsteps
in the march of memory.
New shoes tread lightly,
carrying the weight of history,
as Poland’s tapestry – rewoven, but forever changed –
billows in the wind of a hard-won freedom.
Scrolling through life
Spectrum in C Major
