Jessacca Gironda
8^th grade
St. Joseph School
1909 Third Street
Cuyahoga Falls

I CLOSE MY EYES

 I see the tiny Kurdish girl, who has lived a nightmare, tortured, broken, tears fill her eyes.

I see the little Bosnian boy, afraid, without a family, surrounded by mass murder, alone he dies.

I see the young Rwanda mother, raped, mutilated, murdered, as her tearful children stand by.

They are only a few of the mass many, subjected to the brutality of their leaders.

All I can ask is why?

I close my eyes.

I see Hitler.

I see Saddam.

I see Milosevic.

I see Habyarimana.

It is all such a blur.

I remember my torturous past.

I see the horrific present and

I wonder how this genocide can still occur.

I am simply an old, tired Holocaust survivor,

who wakes from harrowing nightmares, who still lives with excruciating fears.

I remember the gas chamber, the hideous stench of decaying bodies,

the bloody massacres, endless atrocities, still painful after all these years.

My broken heart still yearns for my Jewish loved ones forever lost.

However, it aches even more for victims of today’s modern day holocaust.

I close my eyes.

I see Germany.

I see Iraq.

I see Yugoslavia.

I see Rwanda.

It is all such a blur.

I remember my torturous past.

Why has it become the horrific present?

Why does this genocide still occur?

I am old. God will soon call me home. Before my time on earth comes to pass,

I plead to all humanity; I have only one last thing that I ask.

My sad story, history has told. You know of my suffering and sorrow.

Unite together, end the modern day atrocities and ensure a peaceful tomorrow.

I close my eyes for the last time, I breathe my last breath.