The Life of Liesel Meminger

A small anthology
By: Taylor DePlanche
Inspired by: The Book Thief and
its author Markus Zusak

Death
It started in a color
And it ended with one.
They show in the sky
While corpses await me.
I saw a girl.
A master of thieving.

She was drawn to corpses too.

One by one,
I carried her family.
I took their souls away.
She loathed me.
I was fascinated by her.
I took her brother.
She watched as he died.
I took her mama.
Mid-snore.
I took her papa.
With his grey eyes.
I took the boy she loved.
He loved her too.
I took them away.
She was wretched.
When I took her too,
She had a full life.
She talked to me.
And talked.
And the colors?

They were beautiful too.

The Thiefs Stolen Books

The Gravediggers handbook.

A whim after death.
Her first victim.
Another book.
The Shoulder Shrug.
The Fbrers birthday.
The burning of Jewish books.
A pile of ash.
Flames lick at the words.
Another book.
The Whistler.
Stolen out of spite.
Ilsa Herman fired her mama.
She wanted something back.
Liesel will make her pay.
Another Book.
The Dream Carrier.
She was hungry for more.
Back into Ilsa Hermans library.
To steal another.
Another book.
The Complete Duden Dictionary and Thesaurus.
A gift.
From Ilsa Herman.
She thought she stole it. She was wrong.
The Last book.
The Last Human Stranger.
The last book from Ilsa Herman.

Where have all the people gone?

Rudy
He would do anything for the thief.
He loved her.
For it was she,
He wanted for eternity.
But for now?
Only a kiss.
A kiss he would die without.
Mama
A kind-hearted soul
She swore like a sailor.
Her wardrobe body,
Was caught in mid-snore.
When she perished.
Papa
He loved the girl most.
She loved him the most.
A gifted accordion.
He doubled as a teacher.
The thief was given the greatest gift.
He taught her to read.
Death fell upon him while he slept.
Max
A Jewish Rat.
A fist fighter.
A book Writer.
A gift giver.
He hid in the basement.
And died in a camp.
It was filled with other rats too.
Liesel
She was the girl.
The Thief.
She loved them all.
They were all taken away.
The survivor.
Death greeted her at an old age.

Reflection Paper
My first poem Death was inspired by the narrator of the book The
Book Thief, Death. I tried to use a technique where you can read the poem
two ways, you can either read it regularly of read the indented ones only.
Both ways make sense and I just thought it added a bit of uniqueness to the
poem. I tried to incorporate the colors because of the fact that Death talks
about the colors all the time and I wanted to tie in his relationship with
Liesel because he told her story.
The Thiefs Stolen Books was a very important piece because thats
what Liesel is; shes the Book Thief. I highlighted all of the books she stole
and used repetition in the poem by saying another book because thats
what it seems like in the book, one after another. It also touches base on
how she got the books and why.
The poem, Where have all the people gone? goes over each
character and uses descriptive qualities. It shows how they died and their
connection to the main character, Liesel. I tried to use simple syntax to

make it sound more blunt and fast because thats how their life seemed, it
ended too soon and it went by fast.