Shadow Wall (Podiceps cristatus)
The memorial stretches
along the Nieuwe Keizersgracht
over 200 Jewish names, or rather
Dutch names that were still
a little too Jewish
Engraved plaques set in concrete
moss-etched bricks & ants
crawling over the names
the ages & which death camp
collected their shoes, took their lives
A Great-crested Grebe
head & eyes like fire, back like ash
cuts a V through the reflections
of houses across the canal
where the murdered once lived
He dives near #12
home of Walter & Elizabeth Leib
killed at Auschwitz
first him, October 1942, then her
the following September
along with their children
Gustave, age 2 & Friede, age 1
Flying underwater
the bird catches a glimpse
of red hats & the tiki torches
of Charlottesville, gunfire at
a Walmart in El Paso
He resurfaces at #20,
home of Sara & Klara, ages 9 & 5
who were taken from this world
on a postcard-perfect day,
April 1943, at Sobibór