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In the final days of the Third Reich, Magda Goebbels poisoned her six children. The Goebbels family in 1942: (back row) Hildegard, Harald Quandt, Helga; (front row) Helmut, Hedwig, Magda, Heidrun, Joseph and Holdine.
Two girls, blonde hair, blue ribbons, bare feet caked with dirt.
Their nightgowns smell of diesel, breath tastes of bitter almond.
“I want momma!” Little Heide says.
“She’ll put us back in that basement.” Helga drags her sister
past masked men deporting former allies to the Taliban.
“Have you seen my Helga, meine Heide?”
Magda staples a poster to an almond tree.
FBI agents in blue jackets don’t reply.
Pink blossoms, serrated leaves, smell of diesel, taste of bitter almond
“I want cake. I want Blondi,” Heide says. “I want Hilde and Helmut
and Holde and Hedda. I want to sing the Leader a song.”
Show trials, lawsuits, rubber stamps in judges’ robes,
Pink blossoms, serrated leaves, smell of diesel, taste of bitter almond
After an anti-anti-fascist salute at the inauguration,
billionaires bankrupt the sick, starve the poor.
Magda joins the president in the Horst Wessel song.
Ay! von mir, Wehklagende, Wehklagende
Wehkalagende, in himmelblau
Green fruit, pink blossoms, smell of diesel, taste of bitter almond
Tanks in D.C., Predator drones over Portland, Gaza on Beale Street,
iron lungs, broken test tubes, enemies within,
“Why is your neck bruised?” Heide asks.
Serrated leaves, green fruit, smell of diesel, taste of bitter almond
Partisans burn their rifles, mail excuses with requests for donations.
“Hush, children.” Magda feeds her daughters poppies and marzipan.
Pink blossoms, serrated leaves, smell of diesel, taste of bitter almond
Hundreds of Jon Wesick's poems and stories have appeared in journals such as the I-70 Review, New Verse News, Paterson Literary Review, and Unlikely Stories. He is a regional editor of the San Diego Poetry Annual and host of the Gelato East Fiction Open Mic. His latest book, Reductio Ad Absurdum, is a collection of parodies. He lives in Manchester, New Hampshire and longs for gene editing to bring giant wombats back from extinction.
