for Stephania Adamczyk
 22.3.1942 - 24.4.1942


Stephania lived a little over a month
at Auschwitz. Auschwitz!
A camp that was so much better, cleaner
than Birkenau. Stephania
was able to live there a little over a month.

Stephania arrived in the early days
at Auschwitz, Auschwitz;
they still had money then to take photos
of inmates; no number system
burned in, when Stephania was checked in.

Stephania received a pair of clogs
at Auschwitz, Auschwitz, 
where lanes are rough cobbles. Little 
poplars planted struggled to grow 
when Stephania received her too large clogs.

They shaved off her hair. In the photo
she has that look of being
imploded and now, as shell, 
she wears a vacant look
and her striped uniform.

Stephania was a Catholic Pole 
at Auschwitz, Auschwitz,
with Jews, Russians, Gypsies, handicapped,
homosexuals, dissidents and the little girl 
who stole a doll from a little German girl.

They each had their sign—stars, circles 
at Auschwitz, Auschwitz; 
a dash, triangle, black spot
littered the dirt before the firing wall,
speckled it with bloody clues. 

It’s cleaned up, the dirt, now
at Auschwitz, Auschwitz;
only the wall and iron gate,
only the irony in work remains.
Stephania was able to work a little over a month.
 
One Polish guard patrols the lanes now 
at Auschwitz, Auschwitz, 
in new, black leather shoes, not run 
down like hers, she who was so much 
better off at Auschwitz than at Birkenau, 

at Auschwitz, Auschwitz,
where poplars have grown tall,
where life is still
so much better than the four hundred 
twenty-acre trench called Birkenau.

© 2005 by Sharon Chmielarz. All rights reserved.