The Final Solution of a Small Town

weaving through the German country side on the way back

from Düsseldorf to Berlin

we pass through all these little towns

Gruten Schwelm Unna Lemgo

in a strange and unsettling afterglow

of the recent election and the swing to the right again

seventy five years after the second World War

I can see passengers being packed up and loaded

onto train cars von Gleis Eins und Zwei

being shipped out of each small town one at a time

until they are all gone

which must not have taken even a full week

in a town with less than a thousand people

and I can see the Bürgermeister standing there

in front of a congregation in the town square

declaring the problem finally solved

under a red and black flag

after which all the towns people sheepishly clap

I dream up all this history in my head cinema

when a woman’s voice comes on over the loudspeaker

just before we arrive in Braunsteig

the train might be longer than the platform

I repeat

the train might be longer than the platform

and when we pull in to town sure enough
there are boys standing there
waiting and watching

with certainty and the eyes of fascism

with hands covering their noses

against the smell of Scheiß and Schweine

and democracy

with the pride of their parents and grandparents

and even their own friends instilled in them

all for the sake of getting rid of the cockroaches

with the big noses

and when we pull out there they are cheering for the last train

as the church bells begin to ring

and I can see myself too as a boy standing there

in each small town

on each platform

waving a flag