How many dispossessed?

"Enemies of the people"

for many long years

labour camps in the Ural taiga

white sun, white sky

uninhabited.

"You have 15 minutes!"

pack a bag, sepia photographs.

Grandfather's sister, Lia,

brother Yaakov, deported

accused of being a kulak

owner of lands

in Sudilkov village

windowless cattle cars

for one thousand versts around:

Where to? For how long?

Wolf carcasses

earth dugouts and huts

ragged, lice-ridden.

Logging timber

rye bread rations

thin, watery soup

barbed wire of the camp.

But how long can a song last?

Smuggled out with prison letters

sphagnum, bog cranberry

steppe wildflowers

buried beyond the river.

Ilona Martonfi is the author of three poetry books, Blue Poppy, (Coracle Press, 2009.) Black Grass, (Broken Rules Press, 2012). The Snow Kimono, (Inanna Publications, 2015).