to PIr Vilayat (to myself)

my grandparents
were at that camp
where your sister
was beaten
and then
shot to death

Noor was a radiant heroine
a key component
of the French resistance

my grandfather
bought his and grandma's way
out of Dachau;
they emerged
relatively unscathed

it is not the divergence
of these two stories
that consumes me now

but my own story

more than half a century later,
will I fight for what
I believe in
or will I be buying my way
out of martyrdom
forever