Dream of an embryo long unfulfilled,
Amorphous image of a haunted face,
Voice of a childhood prematurely stilled,
Vague, unborn shadow light cannot erase,

Your ghetto is yet darker and more cruel
Than hers, who, long before you were not born,
Dreamed of a child who would not guess that fuel
Could kindle ovens where the living mourn.

Mute throbbing of a heart that never beat,
Quiet pulsations from the unformed brain,
Yours is the prison, and the last defeat;
The hands too young and small to loose the chain.

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