Thoughts from 8th graders at the PIMS
By: Parker Lambert; Sedona Lucas; Michelle Cawley;
The Black Room
By Parker Lambert
The black room
The dark, dank black room
The musty crowed room
The black room.
The black room
The dirty, damp black room
The unsightly, filthy room
The black room
The black room
The room is fear
The room is death
The black room
The black room
Here life fails to exist
Here there are no cries of fear
The black room
The black room
The room consumes everything
Even those with flying wings
The black room
The black room
Enter if you dare
Many will cease to care
The black room
The black room
You have been warned formally and fair
Yet you continue to stare and stare
The black room
The black room
With staring you can guess and guess
You want to see no or yes
The black room
The black room
I have tried to help you
No one will hear your yelp of pain
For this is the black room and nothing escapes, not even your pain.
Grade 8
Presque Isle Middle School
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Why?
By Sedona Lucas
Yes, I am a Jew,
but why am I punished?
We have to wear a yellow star and be treated like we are nothing.
We are sent to concentration camps, work camps, ghettos, and more.
We are worked and starved to death — but what happened to you?
Nothing.
You do not care; to you we are just a speck of dust.
You do not care what happens to us; as long as we are gone, you’re happy.
Our feelings do not matter;
we are just wrong to you.
My question is why?
Why do we not matter?
Why are we wrong?
Why do you hurt us, physically and emotionally?
Because of you it’s hard for me to believe.
It’s hard for me to believe I will be okay.
It’s hard for me to believe I am something.
It’s hard for me to believe someone cares.
I try to think that someday I will be free.
Someday I will have my own family.
That someday I will still be a Jew, but nobody can stop me.
Yes, I am a Jew, but I am proud.
Grade 8
Presque Isle Middle School
* This poem is written in the view of a Jewish person during the Holocaust, to a Nazi soldier.
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Life During the Holocaust
By Michelle Cawley
Whether a hidden child,
Or death camp prisoner,
Imagine living in constant fear.
Fear of separation,
Torture;
Fear of death.
Death by starvation, suicide;
Gas chambers, death marches;
Unimaginable treatment
of innocent Jews.
Jewish villages wiped out
by the minute.
Over six million innocent Jewish souls lost
On Adolf Hitler’s account.
Accounts of murder everyday;
Accounts of suicide
just as often;
In order to survive,
there had to be courage.
Courage to survive the day,
To stand up for those
who could not
Make it through
these twelve miserable years.
Twelve years of pure misery;
With nothing
but failed attempts at
Destroying this monster called Hitler. Until …
Until Germany surrendered in 1945
And Hitler committed suicide.
This was the day of freedom for all
Except the six million lives already lost.
Grade 8
Presque Isle Middle School
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My Happy Place
By Michelle Cawley
As I stand here overlooking the lake
I stand on my rock; my happy place
The misty wind blowing through my hair
I hold my hat in the palms of my hands
For a second, I thought I had it all figured out
The point to life;
why we’re all running around
Like there’s something we need to find
I had it, but like the wind it blew away.
Gone. Gone like the sun in a hail storm
But because this is my happy place
I can’t help but feel at ease
How peaceful I feel as I stand here
Overlooking my lake
Grade 8
Presque Isle Middle School
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