Bronia and Giza worked to lay stones in the roadway
over the endless mud.
Guta, Fania, and I worked dredging filth
from the ditches
bordering the crematorium.
We took turns keeping watch
and resting
when no one was looking.
Other girls flirted
through the barbed wire
surrounding Crematorium II
with the men
in the Sonderkommando.
One girl
her eyes shadowed
darker than the night
pressed her lips
between the barbed wire for a kiss.
How can you talk to them?
Guta asked.
They are monsters,
Fania said.
Doing dirty work for the Germans,
I said.