A Knock at the Door

20 Nov 2019 · 4 min

Watch on YouTube

4:26

The piece is a lyrical, first‑person recounting of a survivor’s harrowing wartime experience. The narrator describes a boy born in the early 1940s whose childhood is marked by insecurity and fear. Soldiers abruptly seize his belongings and force him onto a train, an event that haunts him as the sound of wheels on tracks. The train arrives amid a smoky, cloudy sky, and the narrator witnesses children torn from their mothers and a town reduced to ruins. Daily life under occupation involves counting the living, rationed soup and coffee contaminated with sand, and constant exposure to death, leading the narrator to wish for his own death. Throughout, the refrain “Everything can change with a knock at the door” underscores how a single moment can upend an entire existence. The narrator reflects on how hearing this survivor’s story provides more than a tale—it offers a profound, emotional connection to history.

Chapters

Shared a story, shed some tears. After all the time and distance, looked like he was living through those years. He was born in the early '40s, a childhood not easy to enjoy. Spent his days without security, his worries A lot for a little boy. How could he have known what would be in store? How everything could change with a knock at the door. Soldiers took all his belongings. He was thrown onto a train without a clue about his destination. The sound of wheels on tracks still echoes in his brain. The train arrived, the sky was cloudy, the air was filled with a burning smell. Children taken from their mothers stand than outside the gates of hell. Once there was a town, but now it is no more. Everything can change with a knock at the door. Used to have a family, then there came a war. Everything can change with a knock at the door. In the morn they'd count the living, make 'em wait till they were fed. Soup and coffee full of sand and water, seeing bodies hanging, wishing he were dead. Oh, I remember that survivor, how he took me through those years. Gave me more than just a story. Everything can change with a knock at the door. Everything can change with a knock at the door. Everything can change with a knock at the door. Everything can change with a knock at the door.