ANNY ON THE BEACH.

A GHOSTLY GIRL WATCHES CHILDREN AT PLAY ON THE BEACH.

It is a summer’s day, mid August, and
You sit in a deckchair looking out to

Sea, your youngest child and grandchildren are
Playing on the beach, some tiptoeing in

The incoming tide, others are building
Sandcastles if the wet sands permit, and

There, suddenly, to one side is Anny
Horowitz, standing watching in her dark     

Ghostly 1930s clothes, wanting, you
Feel, to join in, but she looks back at you,

Knowing the others cannot see her, with
Her blue eyes, pushing her small hand through her

Blonde hair, looking at you with that young girl
Innocent stare. You sit forward about

To mouth words, but she turns way, watching
The children at play, walking the narrow

Parameter of their games and castle,
Sensing their joyousness, their laughter, her

Phantom 1930s shoes leaving no
Footprints in the damp sands, no mark, no sign.

You get up and walk down to where she treads
Her slow circular path, always gazing

Inward, a smile shyly lingering on
Her lips. You stand a few paces away.

You go to speak, but what to say? Words fail
You, you stand and stare, watch her briefly as

She moves about; she sings, but the words are
Carried off in the wind away away,

Then she’s gone, just you and your youngest child
And your grandchildren on the beach at play.

Author's Note

Anny Horowitz died in Auschwitz in 1942.