A cento, for Jon Grabelle Hermann

“The ceremony is a respectful event
that commemorates Holocaust victims
by placing a small brass plaque
outside their last freely chosen residence
or place of work.

Created with a powerful idea
that people are only forgotten
when their names are forgotten,
each stone is small, just 10 by 10 cm,
but it carries the full weight of life,
of a family broken, a future stolen,
and a community shattered.

These stones invite passers-by
to pause, remember, and reflect.
We do not stumble
over them with our feet,
but with our hearts.”

In the moment of silence,
on a street in Greimerath,
a motorcycle sped by.

Anne Whitehouse (she/her) is the author of poetry collections: The Surveyor’s Hand, Blessings and Curses, The Refrain, Meteor Shower, Outside from the Inside, and Steady, as well as the art chapbooks, Surrealist Muse (about Leonora Carrington), Escaping Lee Miller, Frida, Being Ruth Asawa, and the forthcoming Adrienne Fidelin Restored. She is the author of a novel, Fall Love. Her poem, “Lady Bird,” won the Nathan Perry DAR 2023 “Honoring American History” poetry contest. She has lectured about Longfellow and Poe at the Wadsworth Longfellow House in Portland, Maine, and Longfellow House Washington Headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.