We went to Aushwitz because it’s really just something you should do if your in Krakow, you probably won’t enjoy yourself but you owe it to yourself as a human to go. There was a quote on a plaque in the entrance, I forget who it was from, or even it’s exact words (why didn’t I take a photo of it!) but it was basically “we must remember the evil of our past so we will not commit it again in our future”.

I’m not going to go into detail about what the tour entailed or what happened here, you probably already know, and if you don’t, do yourself a favour and read up on it, you could do worse than following the Wikipedia link above.

If you do decide to go when you’re there you will see pamphlets and advertising everywhere for organised tours they will pick you up…

Insta-poetry. Or something.

An apartment full of boxes in Carroll Gardens
An art space in Bushwick
A mother and daughter in Central Park
A little house with a white picket fence in the suburbs

* * *

* * *

Such different life paths
From each other, and from mine
Yet New York City is like glue
Where these intersections materialize

We talk about the dance between travel and memory
Each step to both recall and reshape
In Brooklyn, the sidewalks are familiar
Yet with each step I’ve forgotten and let go

* * *

* * *

I once had a chance to live here
The MFA program I did not choose
An alternate timeline, a life in this big city
A much different now

That last line is missing a question mark
As now could be as it is
Or not at all
Living elsewhere, unmarried
Walking a path…