a world apart, i stood where two universes had divided, where a wall had fallen, crumbled into dust and ashes of the men who had attempted
to cross it; with all their might and desperation risked their lives so that their children might one day see freedom
with their wide wondering eyes of naïveté and joy. a world apart i stood, desperately clinging to their stories: their martyrdom;
the names i would never know; the stories that would go untold with nobody who knew them, nobody to tell them anymore.
a world apart i stood watching the snowfall in berlin, dampening the streets where the death strip once tore life from the innocent
in the name of separation; the falseness of east and west. a world apart i stood, glad that it was no more.
This was written shortly after my first trip to Berlin last year. The sacrifices people made in order to escape to the West was something that really touched me; the accidental martyrs the Wall made out of people who only ever wanted to be free. This poem is for Peter Fechter, who I hope is finally at peace and free, wherever he may be.