"But All of Warsaw is a Cemetery"

Every place has its own hell
"but all of Warsaw is a cemetery."

90% of the city bombed?
87% of the population disenfranchised, enslaved, even?
Recovery, of a sort, has happened.
But to live atop the ashes of the slaughtered?
Something altogether else is required (of you).

"All of Warsaw is a cemetery."
"And what of the park?
What of literature?
Where are the monuments to the living?"

They say no one reacted to the burning of the Ghetto
because gunshots and screams
were an everyday occurrence.
How little does it take?
What is the minimum brutality needed
to produce a complacent population?
Or is it always maximum brutality?
We are still the same as them, right?
The Poles, 1943, we're just like them, right?

***

The secret agent tapping your phone
politely asks you to the cut the conversation short;
it's late, and he needs his rest.
You have no freedom
but your oppressor earns the same wage as you.
You have no freedom
but you have food, housing, medicine and education.
You have no freedom,
but plenty of time to sit and talk with friends.

***

How long does it take a people to forget
the hell of war?
As long as you can say,
"and to my grandfather, they..."
"before... (the war)..."
"before... (the peace)..."
The war is still on.