Numbered - Marija Bralović

each of them
had an identification number
on the left hand

in Auschwitz
you didn’t  have a name.
just that number
four hundred
thousand serial numbers

under the skin
livid

Some of the survivors
still wake up with
B-11647, 76914,  A-2074
B-1367
and fall asleep
likewise

a clerk in some German bank
told the woman
A-2074
"your lucky number
ending with number 4
mine is number 5!"
and she said
“That’s so cool!”

one number,
survived,
said
he isn’t afraid of death  now
that he never will be

A-15510
extracted  teeth from corpses
once,  since both corpses were tall,
he broke their legs
to fit in the same coffin

to one girl,
when she asked
in the camp
where her parents are
The Germans said
"do you see that chimney?
they certainly bake you a bread!"

and twin sisters
survived
with consecutive
identification numbers
they don’t know
to read it out

because it
will be never
important enough
never
valuable enough
someone’s suffer
marked with a number