Confessional American poet Anne Sexton (1928-1974) filled her writing with deeply personal themes. In addition to writing for "The New Yorker", "Harper's Magazine", and "The Saturday Review", Sexton published a book of poetry, "Live or Die" (1967), that won a Pulitzer Prize.

"After Auschwitz" is a highly personal response to the tragedy and horror of WWII. Sexton turned 20 in 1948, and knowledge of the Holocaust had a lasting impact on her.

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After Auschwitz
By Anne Sexton

Anger,
as black as a hook,
overtakes me.
Each day,
each Nazi
took, at 8: 00 A.M., a baby
and sauteed him for breakfast
in his frying pan.

And death looks on with a casual eye
and picks at the dirt under his fingernail.

Man is evil,
I say aloud.
Man is a flower
that should be burnt,
I say aloud.
Man
is a bird full of mud,
I say aloud.

And death looks on with a casual eye
and scratches his anus.

Man with his small pink toes,
with his miraculous fingers
is not a temple
but an outhouse,
I say aloud.
Let man never again raise his teacup.
Let man never again write a book.
Let man never again put on his shoe.
Let man never again raise his eyes,
on a soft July night.
Never. Never. Never. Never. Never.
I say those things aloud.

I beg the Lord not to hear.

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