Paul Lee
Rosa
was tall and skinny, her face a puckered apple
on which she slipped shades, lipstick-drew a scarlet mouth.
She and her elder sister, who was short and round,
spoke together in a language all sputter, hiss and drone.
She was born in pre-war Latvia - Fatland to its envious neighbours -the darling youngest of a Lutheran dairy farming family,
who stopped her from driving in to Riga for cafe treats
when nationalists were hung from street lamps in the new SSR..
Like many, she welcomed the grey invading army from the West; closed her eyes as the Riga ghetto emptied; closed her ears
to the talk about einsatzkommandos, of what happened in the forest
of Rumbuli. She chose, like others, to retreat from the Red Army
into an ebbing Reich that had convinced her it could still win:
heartsick, she walked, unraped, the thousand miles back home.
Yes, Rosa, this is your farm. It’s dusk. There are lights in the windows.
Your people knew you were coming. Just listen to that dog.
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