Two Poems by Jacqueline Saphra

Remains – Berlin 1945

I think of the effort of history to make connections and to remember — Yehuda Amichai

I

There is only so much you can burn
without sufficient fuel
and even then

Teeth

Porcelain

Gold fillings

the harder bones

tend to resist

and need to be bludgeoned to powder


Tricky


II

What nation doesn’t have its rites and rituals,
building plans, bridges, temples?

Who wouldn’t make a burial ground
a pyramid, a pit, an oven?

The dead must be managed
to protect the living.

This is rudimentary hygiene.


III

At first a mad wind
birthed from the hell fires of Berlin

and they could not ignite
the shuddering match to set alight
the corpses
drenched in whatever petrol they could muster

A torch from a twist of paper
somebody said

then finally ignition
and a hasty heil from acolytes

who dared not linger
fearful of Russian shells


IV

What am I doing?

Do I really want to tell you
do you really want to know
the Red Army retrieved
enough teeth
from a crater near the bunker
to identify the führer’s bite

upper-jaw bridgework

genuine porcelain inlays

a lower jawbone

V

Sometimes burning is hiding

The soul is a flame they say

Enough flames
and you might imagine
you can burn
a world of history down

vintage führer

you can bid
for his face
on ebay
emblazoned
on an ashtray

Jacqueline Saphra is a poet, playwright and activist. Her second collection, All My Mad Mothers, was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize and her newest collection, Velvel’s Violin, will be out in July 2023 (both from Nine Arches Press). She is a founder member of Poets for the Planet and teaches for The Poetry School.