Super Tuesday Wondering

Super Tuesday Wondering

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1933, at the

Tail end of  Kampfzeit,

Before it was cast as

One man’s struggle:

A totem to a people’s angst,

A party wrested from

A corrupted establishment.

When he re-wrote history.

When they rabbled and mobbed.

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1934, on the

Nacht der langen Messer,

When political rivals

Were eliminated,

If not by long knives, by

Complicit intelligentsia:

Silenced irreparably.

When he destroyed institutions.

When they took part in his putsches

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1935, when the

Treaty of Versailles shattered:

Diplomacy disintegrated,

Power consolidated at home,

Pushed against the borders

Of reparation, against the

Others in their midst.

When he perpetrated massive fraud.

When they joined his army and invaded sovereigns.

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1936, when

America, itself imperfect, showed

The strength of diversity

In democracy, in the wake

Of Aryanist fervor:

Against impurity, against

Olympians and decency.

When he charmed the volk with blind hate.

When they drove the trains and guarded the camps.

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1937, upon

The opening of Buchenwald,

A holding place for “professional

Habitual criminals,” Jews and

Gypsies and gays and artists,

A template for extermination:

A blitz from ghetto to destruction.

When he systematically murdered a peaceful race.

When they turned blind eyes until their eyes were gone.

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1938, the dark

Kristallnacht stripping rights,

Breaking glass, breaking heads:

Broken commerce to purge,

Thirty thousand Jews and

Degenerates disappearing:

Emigrated, concentrated.

When he brought civilization to the brink of destruction.

When they brought civilization to the brink of destruction.

I wonder what it was like,

In Germany, in 1939, when

Peaceful borders moved,

When removal morphed into

Vernichtung; when neighbors

And friends and children

disappeared; trains to nowhere

Departed from next doors.

I wonder what it was like when:

He was elected.

They elected him

To make Germany Great Again.

I wonder, was it Super?

I wonder, was it Tuesday?