Linda Scheller

THE PIED PIPER

there were always places to hide
after we refused to pay him                       we were collected and       
if we couldn’t find our mother                       we sang the old songs

they demolished the ghetto

we stole food                                                          in the cobblestone street
which had been our prison

from the little corner stores                    where the children played their games        
we were packed into boxcars                               when the clerks were distracted

                                              they heard a flute           

a one-way trip                                             back to our hiding place         
beyond the city gates                                           they took the men               

we divided up the food                                and the children ran toward the music 
        away from us

we told each other stories                                               and they all disappeared 

we undressed                        drifting off to sleep                             forever except                         

pale clouds hissed            

we whispered our prayers to                                                the only child left            

                                                 strangling us                  

Linda Scheller is the author of Fierce Light, a poetry collection published by FutureCycle Press. Her writing has appeared widely in publications including The American Journal of Poetry, West Trade Review, Plays, Santa Fe Literary Review, Steam Ticket, Connecticut River Review, Poetry East, and Hawai’i Pacific Review. Her website is lindascheller.com.