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Edelweiss

We have waited so long to fight.
We have sloshed through mud, 
subsisted off bugs like John the Baptist.
With every "Hail Hitler" that echoes off stone walls,
with every swastika that dances in our heads,
we know the time is growing near.
Soon, we think, wiping our moist foreheads,
streaking dirt and excrement across our faces.
Our sweat has a new flavor, and we whimper
in our helplessness.
Deliver us! we cry.  The air grows thick
and we begin to pant like dogs.  We pass the night
sweating and starting.  Sunrise comes and he emerges
from over the hills, backlit by the dawn.
He tells us to rise.  Edelweiss!
The flowers follow suit.
There was a tired old woman in my German town
who ground the lacy petals and mixed them with tallow
to make scented soap.  I never heard her speak
but when I passed her house I was soothed by litanies of the grinder.

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