~life Or Death~ Poem by Andrew John Morra

What does it mean to be lost, or afraid?

T'is my debt to God that I have paid.

Through sheer life,

I have lost,

All that I hold dear to strife.

No matter the cost,

It has taken,

Groping with it's sullen hands,

And left me shaken,

With my scattered, broken hopes and dreams.

I, a man at eighteen,

Have no other mean,

Than to wonder,

To ponder,

The questions of my faith.

For the Nazis came like wraiths,

Passing through our doorways,

Entering our homes.

And I have paid for my ways.

I lie beneath a tome,

Since I refused to be taken,

Refused to be shaken.

I lost my hopes and dreams,

And my heart was ripped from it's seams,

As I watched my family view me die.

So here I lie.

Since I refused to be taken.

Refused to be shaken.