Nothing can be bad
when you are looking into the face of
a friend.
Janek has come
wearing hope like a tailor-made suit.
He stands on the other side
of the barbed-wire fence.
“Saul, Moishe,
you’re getting out of here.”
He is happy to be a messenger
bearing good news.
“Your father is coming for you.
He has joined the resistance.”
My ears are hearing,
but my mouth can’t move.
Janek has done something
no one has been able to do.
He has given voice to hope.
It feels like the wind has been knocked out of me.
Saul lays his hand on my shoulder
to keep me steady.
I can hardly breathe.
All I hear is
TOMORROW.
HERE.
RESCUE.
FREEDOM.
BE READY.
I’ve had nothing to be ready for
for a long time.
I need to get that part right because
my father is coming.
For us.