[corrected] NVN Wednesday: Two Poems Today
“L’SHANAH TOVA WISHES FROM ‘45’” by Jeremy Nathan Marks; “POPE PIUS XII KNEW” by Susan Cossette
POPE PIUS XII KNEW
DECEMBER 1, 1942
by Susan Cossette
Letter between Pope Pius XII, who served as Pope during World War II, and a German Jesuit reveals Pius knew of the atrocities committed by the Nazis during the Holocaust —James Gordon, Dailymail.com and Wires, September 18, 2023
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You knew and what did you do? The Jesuit priest wrote to you. The SS was running death factories, 6,000 Poles and Jews killed every day. You knew about Auschwitz and Dachau. Did you pray on your lapis lazuli rosary for the teenaged girl who saw her parents murdered? Face down on her wooden bunk, after the tan suits shaved her head and pubic hair. Your supplicants say you worked behind the scenes to help Jews and stayed mute to prevent worsening the situation for Catholics in Nazi-occupied Europe. Your detractors say you lacked courage, despite pleas from Allied powers fighting Germany. Pius, Pius you knew, you knew. The yellowed typewritten letter says it all. Pius what did you fail to do?
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Susan Cossette lives and writes in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Author of Peggy Sue Messed Up, she is a recipient of the University of Connecticut’s Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize. A two-time Pushcart Prize nominee, her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Rust and Moth, The New Verse News, ONE ART, As it Ought to Be, Anti-Heroin Chic, The Amethyst Review, Crow & Cross Keys, Loch Raven Review, and in the anthologies Fast Fallen Women (Woodhall Press), Tuesdays at Curley’s (Yuganta Press), and After the Equinox.
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L’SHANAH TOVA WISHES FROM ‘45’
by Jeremy Nathan Marks
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When I lived in the western U.S. people told me that as a Jew I should value how the GOP made religion the foremost test for American citizens. They said Democrats and Liberals were secularists secular meaning socialist a.k.a. godless there can be no covenant no Eretz unless you are free market capitalist of course, socialism was one of Zionism’s foundations think Kibbutz for instance Subtext: I should become a Jew for Jesus. There are and have long been socialists who are religious their political-spiritual imagination just happens to range beyond the Rocky Mountains or a golf course in DeSantis land to touch the former ghettos of Europe the current Cheders of Brooklyn and Buenos Aires and lots of places lost to the amnesiac memory of rapturists. Recently, ‘45’ wished my people L’Shanah Tova before telling 70+ percent of us that we voted to destroy America and Israel. What I want to know is if I change my voter registration to Trumpist, will Kanye and Elon also send me New Year’s wishes How about Nick Fuentes?
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Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in the Great Lakes region of Canada. His most recent book is Flint River published by Alien Buddha Press (2023).
No denying he knew. Thanks for sharing this prophetic poem.