© 2006 Heather Cameron

Photograph

It is nothing.
It is a man dressed in uniform.
It is a shortmanboy roundfacedspectacledbalding

with an armband
and I see he was teased as a child
by the soft flaccid overcompensatory jaw

and the dreaming
in his eyes—"of chivalry's return
in callow guise wanting only meekness for a bride."

It is Himmler   arms akimbo
squeamish at machine gun death God the screaming
children bleeding women's mess. More efficient
were the gas camps in their silent hideousness.

It is Himmler
known in Britain for his courteousness
smiling faintly—and I wonder how he was with women.