Heberto Padilla, Anne Frank (Cuba)

In front of Cologne Cathedral
—divided by two black columns—
once more the children
are taking up their songs.

I have watched them playing:
mostly, I have noticed,
they jump from one song to the next,
from one tune
to another.

And today I was given the photo
of your thin fading face,
child, now arrived in your high Hebrew heaven.
And how odd
that I am now sitting on this bench
(a few steps from the Rhine)
watching the water go by,
for I had long thought
that blood would have flowed . . .