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To See Shoah.mp3

 

TO SEE SHOAH

to see Shoah
nine and one half hours
you have to come back a second day
you notice not everyone comes back
you have avoided all reviews
and commentary but recollect
the director has been called obsessed
the minutes accumulate
there are trains and the schedules of trains
there are trees now and trees then
there is soil and its particular composition
there are shoes, teeth and smoke
there is the capacity of trains
and the capacity of buildings
there is a boy thankful for a job
there is a barber thankful for a skill
there is a farmer recalling watching trains
there are mounds of details
and you think about them
you think of Shoah for months
if you were born in 1941 in Brooklyn
you reflect this took place
as the snows fell on Sheepshead Bay
on Brighton and Coney Island the snows
fell in your childhood
you try to write something
on it and you feel profoundly false

–Tony Quagliano