‘A Poor Christian Looks at the Ghetto’ by Czeslaw Milosz presents a description of the Warsaw Ghetto from the eyes of a “poor Christian.”
Fear is a central emotion of the poem, as the speaker describes his terror and the uncertainty and danger surrounding people in the ghetto. The vivid and disturbing imagery, such as the "phosphorescent fire from yellow walls" and the counting of buried bodies, further emphasizes the sense of fear and unease conveyed in the poem.
Bees build around red liver,
Ants build around black bone.
It has begun: the tearing, the trampling on silks,
It has begun: the breaking of glass, wood, copper, nickel, silver, foam