Vox Populi
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Judith R. Robinson: I Apologize
to my precious elders;
the valuable ones,
those thick-fleshed
indestructible Jews
I have known,
those who
endured; those who
had the clenched tooth
grit to flee before
the ovens were lit,
those –bergs and –steins
and –skis
those tailors artists bakers
peddlers scholars music-makers
who did not become the incinerated trash of Europe:
My own people, once stalwart as the stars,
must now weep as we, their stunning progeny,
disappear like shadows
into the cracked cement of sweet America
our brainless heads sucked under the white foam,
merging, whistling, forgetting, drowning, dancing,
no lessons learned, refusing to keep anything.
Copyright 2023 Judith R. Robinson. First published in 5AM. The poem won the 2011 Reuben Rose Award from Voices Israel. Included in Vox Populi by permission of the author.
Judith R. Robinson‘s poetry collections include Buy A Ticket (Word Poetry 2022). She lives in Pittsburgh PA.
Vox Populi 
“weep as we, their stunning progeny,
disappear like shadows
into the cracked cement of sweet America”
I will not forget that image…
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“I am not a Jew with trembling knees” – Menachem Begin
So proud of you, Aunt Judy. You nailed it…we need strength and awareness of the tragedy ahead if we continue to fail to realize who we are in this world.
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I am grateful for this poem, this remembrance. I have my own poems and stories for the ones who made it and the ones who didn’t, for what I learned, and for what was lost to me. I know this Holocaust memorial. Miami Beach. I put my great-aunt’s name on the wall there, and ran my fingers over her name – Tobe Dine – when I visited. I grieve for the stories I never learned about her. Too many disappeared into the smoke. But I have something. My name is Dinah Toby. I have her name, at least.
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What a lovely memorial, Dinah. Thank you!
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Thank you, Ricky. I am proud of you, too, Mr. Music!
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I really like the imagery “brainless heads sucked under the white foam…” as well as line, “no lessons learned, refusing to keep anything.” Indeed, sometimes it seems humanity has not learned a thing.
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Yes, the poem does not pull its punches, does it?
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This poems is incredibly moving. To tears.
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Yes, I find it moving as well.
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What a powerful poem (for Yom Kippur). The whole last century in a nutshell.
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Yes, it is an ambitious poem, despite its brevity.
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