poems
Maria Waridoda
In February's snow-filled sleep our world collapsed,
Its successor perilous - new-shaped existence.
The night-clad Soviet fist directly lunged,
Crushing our nest - the family home.
Coercive hands - calculated, merciless -
Hammer the door, wrench the handle.
Understanding dawns ... here's Nemesis ... Nemesis.
A fleeting prayer: 'Lord, by Thy Shielding...'
Carted like cattle, in wagons clamped,
Through merest window's slit beyond our view
Slides our dearest Polish land: sanctum sanctorum,
Europe's usual martyr shedding farewell tears.
What follows - the grey dolour of Russian fields;
Drained, strained comrades on station platforms ranged;
Leaded skies - cloud sheeted;
Listless eyes; life - lost hands;
Vacant steppes, Siberia, the buran's
Disembodied wail; Kirghiz' indifference.
In gaping Saman shacks the first year groans
Long as eternity - mine-shaft black -
Amid life's blood-drained emptiness...
But God stood with us!