Stolpersteine

Here in Berlin they have these interesting
little brass plaques maybe four by four inches 
embedded in the sidewalk in front of 
various buildings thousands of them 
around the city called Stolpersteine 
or “stumbling blocks” handy little 
reminders and now and then you glance 
down and maybe there’s three of them 
together a little family Jacob 
and Leah and Elsa Aberman arrested 
on this spot March 7 1942
murdered in Auschwitz the plaques 
like punctuation like brass periods
where the sentence fragment
of a life ended here and here and here
and it’s interesting because 
back home the language is heating up
the elected leader is shouting to the crowds
send them back where they came from them
being Muslims and Latinos and so forth
and the crowds love it they’re shouting it back
giving voice to something locked up in them
for so long and it just feels so good
to shout it out nakedly under the heavens
and I guess what’s interesting from over here
is that certain people keep saying hey
this kind of reminds me of Hitler and certain
others say no way read your history this 
is nothing like Hitler not even close
and I look down at those little plaques
with their scuffed muted Jacobs and Leahs
and Elsas and the chants grow louder and
louder I mean you can hear them
all the way over here.