Compressions

Cyrus Cassells
The Crossed-Out Swastika

“Riders on the Back of Silence”
end of section VI “Trains”
[the stationmaster is remembered]

storefronts of Kristallnacht
How it would’ve angered him to see

that his beloved trains
we’re used to betray us.

“Sabine Who Was Hidden in the Mountains”

and learners whose hair

would never thin or silver

“The Fit”
Section IV “Youth”

How two boys ignite,
fit together,

is a burst of summer fireworks,
a radiant cartwheel —

Note to “The Fit” points to the memoirs of Pierre Seel and of Gad Beck

Moi, Pierre Seel, déporté homosexuel

An underground life : memoirs of a gay Jew in Nazi Berlin

And so for day 2414
23.07.2013