Tante Annel's Scrapbook (Anya Silver)

Family guilt. The guilt of history. They are both here - interwoven - in today's poem by Anya Silver.

An older relative's scrapbooking hobby - a German war past. It all comes to a head here and is wrapped in family emotions - of a younger family member ignorant of the past and wanting to know and the older ones refusing to explain.

I like the sense of family - really of any family - of any past tragedy. I wish this were not just one long stanza though - it makes it difficult to read/process what is being said.

Favorite line: "this record that bites and scalds my hands"