The Holocaust Genocide
Concentration Death camps

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
not for the faint of heart
especially during break-times

During break-times
a grade five learner
and I read aloud
to our own selves

(others do join us
sitting on the concrete
outside Lisa’s class
as the days go by)

The Fury and Out-With
the movie softened
(Disneyficated you say)

(young Lisa wonders
at the striped cover
and feels it for
its pyjamas-texture)

The Dot that became
a Speck that became
a Blob that became
a Figure that became
a Boy

(we skip some
boringly-titled chapters)

Nazi Germany Jews
Hitler The Führer (leader)

I draw parallels
with apartheid here
ever so present
from the cradle

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
a break-times read for us
out at Belthorn Primary
International Literacy Day
and other days go by