Talking to Americans

My friend Zyni wrote this, not me. I have preserved her line breaks.

In the 1950s, I am told,
if you met a German,
the questions you wanted to ask,
but dared not, were:
what did you do in the war?
did you know about the camps?
about the gas chambers?
of course you did.

This was true in my country too,
when I met older people,
I would not dare to ask
the questions I wanted to ask them:
did you work for them?
did you support the forced birth policy?
did you betray my parents?
of course you did.

In the future, if there is a future,
when we meet Americans,
we will smile and pretend,
we will not dare to ask them:
who did you vote for?
did you know what he would do?
were you so filled with hatred?
of course you were.

The world will not forgive you.

— Zyni Moë, the small snake, the protector of the secret of the gods