Butt of a Rifle

Let's workshop this bitch!

Butt of a Rifle

The better angels 
of the SS camps—
unwilling to shove 
their way into the unhittable
interiors of skeleton schools
marching in the cold; 

unwilling to feign 
being floored 
by the sketches and poetry
of guards needing 
to matter too—rarely 
told their stories.

*This poem is unpublished

Painting: Felix Nussbaum’s “Self-Portrait in the Camp” (1940)