At twelve, she's obsessed with the Holocaust,

with the thoughts of children her age

who didn't go to bed with pleasant dreams

and stuffed animals at their feet

in the soft evening.

Her dreaming eye sees Anne Frank,

tucked into tight attics,

hiding under stairways and tables.

stuffed into cattle cars.

freezing to death,

bathed in seething gas,

turned to ash and cinders,

her young life cut short and an indelible

yellow star stitched through her heart —

Imagine her, such a young person,

wondering why the darkness has to exist.