Thirty Kilogrammes

is quite a small but significant weight,
physically it is quite a small volume.
Nowadays it is what passengers carry,
as hand luggage on international flights.

But eighty five years ago that same weight
was what European Jews, and other 'undesirables'*
in up to eight different categories were allowed to pack
in small brown suitcases, as the sum total of their lives.
When their homes were stolen and they were sent
to they-knew-not-where, but their captors did.

Imagine that-all you carry for a holiday
being all you have for your future life,
and that your future life is so uncertain
that the last thing you were allowed to know
was how small were your chances of a return, after your exit.

*The yellow triangle was for the Jews,
the pink triangle was for homosexuals,
the brown triangle was for the Roma,
the Jehovah's Witnesses got purple,
the politicos, including Freemasons, red,
ordinary criminals got a green triangle,
emigrants were given a blue triangle,
and anti-socials, including drug addicts,
the homeless, and lesbians, got a black triangle.
Finally. it was quite possible to be
in more than one category and to wear
one triangle, inverted, over another.