Poetry

Janusz Kaliszczak photo

By

Denise Buschmann

How He Endured

Lest we forget how quickly our freedom can literally be taken away

How he endured, so long ago

at Auschwitz, he does not know.

There, he did not rebel or cry—

used strength his soul to fortify

another day till the morrow.

Others lived the same, even so,

some could not endure such sorrow.

They starved, froze, perished by-and-by.

How he endured . . .

After Freedom came, he was slow

to allow Grief in his chateau.

To cry when a loved one would die

took therapy to rectify.

Blessings to come. Blessings to sow.

How he endured . . .

Our Schools Aren’t Safe

It’s past time to make our students/teachers/staff safe in all schools in the US. Metal detectors would stop school shootings along with extra security to man them.

Kids thinking the wrong way

already know this. A handgun,

a knife in the backpack—nobody

will know unless I decide to use it,

they think.

How safe would we make our schools

if we knew tomorrow would be the day?

Denise Buschmann

D.C. Buschmann is a recently retired freelance editor and former teacher. She lives in Carmel, Indiana, with her husband, Nick, and two miniature schnauzers, Cupcake and Coco. Her work has appeared on four continents, including Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library’s 2018 So it Goes Literary Journal, Rat’s Ass Review, Flying Island, San Pedro River Review, Odd Magazine, Lamar University’s Wise Ass Anthology, and elsewhere. In 2016, she was a finalist both in the Alex Albright Creative Nonfiction Prize contest and in the Pride in Poetry Prize contest. In 2018, she was a finalist in Poetry Society of Indiana’s Ogdon Award. Her first chapbook, Schnauzer Talk, will be published in 2019.