The wrong choice
by Auke de Leeuw
My name is Auke Siebe Dirk.
I was named after my uncle Dirk Siebe,
A boy who made the wrong choice,
Chose the wrong army
With the wrong ideals,
Escaped poverty,
Hoped for a better life,
No way back.
If a choice is made,
Only a way forward,
Which he cannot avoid,
Fighting against the Russians,
Afraid to die,
Thinking of home,
Where Dirk’s future has yet to begin.
His mother torn apart by war,
Mother of eleven children, with four in the resistance,
And one fighting on the eastern front.
She loved all eleven of them–
Dirk Siebe never came home.
My name is Auke Siebe Dirk–
I am named after Dirk Siebe,
Because neither should Dirk Siebe be forgotten.
(Translated from Dutch)
Above Image: Käthe Kollwitz, Seed for the Planting Shall not be Ground up (1942)
❖ IN COMMUNION / issue 64 / Spring 2012