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My Black Messiah
By Sonia Schreiber Weitz
A BLACK GI STOOD BY THE DOOR
(I NEVER SAW A BLACK BEFORE)
HE’LL SET ME FREE BEFORE I DIE,
I THOUGHT, HE MUST BE THE MESSIAH.
A BLACK MESSIAH CAME FOR ME…
HE STARED WITH EYES THAT DIDN’T SEE,
HE NEVER HEARD A SINGLE WORD
WHICH HUNG ABSURD UPON MY TONGUE.
AND THEN HE SIMPLY FROZE IN PLACE
THE SHOCK, THE HORROR ON HIS FACE,
HE DIDN’T WEEP, HE DIDN’T CRY
BUT DEEP WITHIN HIS GENTLE EYES
…A FLOOD OF DEVASTATING PAIN,
HIS INNOCENCE FOREVER SLAIN.
FOR ME, WITH YET ANOTHER DAWN
I FOUND MY BLACK MESSIAH GONE
AND ON WE WENT OUR SEPARATE WAYS
FOR MANY YEARS WITHOUT A TRACE.
BUT THERE’S A SPECIAL BOND WE SHARE
WHICH HAS GROWN STRONG BECAUSE WE DARE
TO LIVE, TO HOPE, TO SMILE… AND YET
WE VOW NOT EVER TO FORGET.
May 5, 1945, the American Armies liberated Mauthausen. Sick with typhus and fever, unable to distinguish between nightmare and reality, I gazed into the horror filled eyes of a black American soldier.
