Margraten
(Ode to a black soldier)
If I were to describe liberation
then certainly also with the color
you brought back in the eyes of us whom you helped free
If I were to describe character
then certainly also with your refusal
to enter this white world with a black-and-white mindset
If I were to describe sacrifice
then certainly also with the color
of your blood flowing across our barren fields
If I were to describe commemoration
then certainly also with the colorful dreams
your sacrifice allowed to bloom here again after all those years
If I were to describe shame,
deeply shameful shame,
then certainly also with the erasure of your color
from the commemoration of the splendor of colors
you so selflessly brought us at the time