The Sins Of The Fathers

We had parked in a quiet Skopje side street

and the Germans parked in front were

surveying the wreckage of their car.

“They don’t like Germans here,” they said.

We sympathised.

“It’s because of what the Germans did

in Yugoslavia in the war,” we replied.

“But that wasn’t us!” they said.

And of course they were right!

The sins of the fathers..

“But not our fathers” 

they might have responded.

And of course they’d be right.

Probably.

And so it goes,

the sins of the fathers.

There are no barriers,

no boundaries,

no constant

of time 

or place

so they play out

over and over

again.

https://visiblemagazine.com/the-sins-of-the-fathers/