song of atonement
22 x 20 x 10 in
Mixed Media: wood crate, frame sections, barbed wire, twist ties, photo of inmates at Romanian Asylum, paper figure, text written on doors.
2000
(Text on doors)
I was not in a concentration camp
I did not suffer pain
my mother and father fled Poland
I was born on a Russian plain
each day I tear a piece of myself
to hang in wind or rain
because I was not killed
or made insane
a hand, a finger, toes, the feet,
an eye, an arm, an ear,
the less, the more I feel complete
and promise God I will not cheat
my mother made me clean the house
my father told me tales,
but I will not remember them
because they pierce like nails
where did I learn, at whose knee did I hear
that death is the answer to death
how long will it take before I awake
to live my body’s breath.
© 2000 Rosa Naparstek. All Rights Reserved.
Appearing in “Innerscapes and Landscapes” exhibition, Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation. New York, NY. November 2021.