Remembering My Grandpa today with a Poem
Today is my grandpa Max's birthday and while he died many years ago now, he is still an important piece of my heart and my life and I miss him. This summer I wrote a poem about one of his experiences during World War II and it was published this Fall by Origami Press in their Best of Kindness Anthology 2020. The poem, "A Silent Interaction" earned an honorable mention placing as one of the top 6 poems published out of 700 poems submitted. I'm so proud of this poem and so proud to be the granddaughter of Max J Kozy. I hope you enjoy the poem.
A Silent Interaction by Laura Kozy Lanik
My grandpa told me about a man he met
during World War II
a man who spoke a different language
who practiced a different religion
who lived in a concentration camp
until it was liberated by American soldiers.
My grandpa told me this man changed his life
and in these last 50 years
not a day goes by that he doesn’t think about him
even though he never knew his name
he never forgot him.
My grandpa told me he started smoking
when he enlisted in the Army Airforce
the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed.
He put his army-issued cigarettes
in his shirt pocket and carried them everywhere.
My grandpa told me towards the end of the war
in April 1945 he walked through a
liberated concentration camp in Germany,
he couldn't remember which one,
Where he noticed an emaciated man
lying on the cold, hard ground
too weak to get up and
walk out of camp with the others.
This man reached out his hand
and my grandfather gave him the cigarette
he was smoking.
My grandpa told me he helped the man
smoke the cigarette,
he held it to his mouth
and he puffed once, then twice.
The man smiled and my grandpa smiled too,
His dull eyes lit up with a spark
before he passed from this world into the next.
My grandpa told me of the silent interaction
between two men at the end of the war
and I never forgot this simple act of kindness and
how it created a ripple that has lasted for generations.
-Laura Kozy Lanik
