The Boy In The Striped Pajamas (Original Poem)

Sitting cross-legged in the dirt,
Drawing secret wishes with a finger.
Forced to think Auschwitz
Was the homeland he was taken from.
His shaven head covered by
A striped cloth cap,
Matching the one thousands of them wore.
He traces the Star of David
That is bared on his sleeve
And looks with sunken eyes
At his now graying complexion.
A frame so skinny, so sickly thin
That makes his head seem much too big.
The veins with flowing blood
Visible beneath his skin-
The frail bones outlined, sadly.
He can not understand
Why the soldiers don’t like him
And why he can’t find his mother
-But then it is very clear
That his name is what they despised;
Shmuel- branded a Jew
-sent to this camp
Where he can only peer through the fence
Of which he will not escape.