Kurfürstendámm
The terrors happened before I was born,
and yet, some part of me remembers.
In '31, Wolf-Heinrich Graf von Helldorff,
a man, I say, who was aptly named,
cooked up a riot against the Jews.
Kú'damm, you are therefore cursed.
In '35, two hundred of Hitler's worst
practiced their sadism against the Jews,
massacring in violent attack.
Kú'damm, you are once again cursed.
And after a program of violent pogróms,
on November ninth of thirty-eight,
came the smashing and crashing of Kristallnacht,
radiating from Ku'damm to all of Germany.
Ku'damm, you are thrice cursed.
In '63 came JFK,
speaking for all of us on that day,
as the proud Berliners that we were not.
Kú'damm, the ice on which you stand
is growing thin and melting away.
In '68, a bullet to Rudi's head,
bouncing back upon the shooter,
sealed the future
and left the Kú'damm for dead.
Kú'damm, we see your pattern.
The fall of the Wall
said it all.
Marching naked on the Kú'damm,
arm in arm,
in the unity that comes from diversity,
we had our days in the sun.
Kú'damm, we no longer need you.
you give only terrible memories
and dreams that are even worse--
we cannot reverse the curse
in return for a time in the sun.
Now the world is our Kú'damm,
and we shall march again arm in arm.
for peace, for joy, for access to food
(there is, after all, enough for us all,
if it is not wasted on war).
We shall march,
made strong by our love,
and you will never, ever stop us.
Donald Traxler. January 7, 2024
Copyright © 2024 by Donald C, Traxler.
