I'll put blond dye in my hair
Blue dye in my eyes
I'll use the tattered ripped-up seams
Of thoughts I have sheared
To sew together my once-rosy lips
I'll sever from my gypsy roots
Change my name so they'll never know
I'll hide amongst the heterosexuals
Never diving into the sea of my own desires
I'll bury my yellow star deep within the ground
Along with my memories, deep within my heart
I'll cover my ears so I cannot hear
The screams echoing from outside
That make my insides cower and char
I'll stiffen the muscles in my face
In case I cringe at the horrors of the Führer's world
I'll stand up straight, salute, and submit
I'll sink into shadows in case I'm next
I'll cover my past before they find out
Before I join my neighbors
In the barbed-wire fences
And perhaps beyond into the pearly white gates
I'll shrivel up inside myself
Wondering all the while,
If self-imprisonment is more dignified
More purposeful
More rebellious
Than withering, tortured, but true
Behind those ghetto walls.