A Student's Poem from Poland

I look up, the sky is blue
It’s beautiful 
I look down, it’s glummy
The air is different
It’s green all around me
But I can’t see anything but grey
The constant reminder of screams in the distance,
Fathers, mothers, daughters, sons, brothers, sisters, friends
We are all the same
So why are we chosen?

Why are we the chosen ones to die
To be ripped away from our family,
To be tortured, to be starved?

It’s gut wrenching 
The feeling, a pit in my stomach
My heart racing
The urge to cry
Then I think about the mothers,
The mothers that stayed strong so their children wouldn’t be scared
The mothers that did everything they could do to save them.

It’s throwing me off,
How could somewhere so beautiful 
Have such darkness in its soul?

- Ciona Antolin, Fall Semester 2019