Memento Mori

                                        by Anna Sotto

Chatting over tea

in the ten o'clock break

as teacher's do -

I catch a glimpse

of the blue number

tattooed on your arm.

I try to see you as

you were.

A shaven head,

a nameless face,

reduced to

this number.

I want to speak out

and touch you

but,

we chat over tea

in the ten o'clock break

as teachers do.

Shdemot - Literary Forum

of the Kibbutz Movement

No. 10 1978

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