Mamushka

I always think of that

horrific day in 1945

perhaps

though there were some drizzles

and malicious-like rumors

of crimes and loss

the connection was also cut

And in a normal house

in a perfectly normal village

two sabra kids

with white teeth

wallowing in the sand

like pigs in a goy’s yard

she cries at night

and is cross in the day

for hardly no reason

A small Yishuv of a future state

that was extricated in El Alamein

waiting

it was in the evening, at noon, in the morning…

The radio said and afterward - silence

six hundred thousand held their breath

for one second

to hear the message

that all is gone and ceased and everyone there

dust in rivers and in the air

and ashes on the face of the earth

And a single daughter who left her parents

aging, awaiting a dreadful verdict

sits in a normal house

in a perfectly normal village

with two sunburned sabras

who wallow like pigs

she cries at night

and is cross in the day

Her man drowns himself

with work and defense concerns

he numbs his pain

in persisting burden

in worrying labor and a cigarette

that calms him down

as if to forget

She shuts herself

in a normal house

in a perfectly normal village

with two sabra kid

and laughing eyes

wallowing in the sand like pigs

in Vladek’s yard

she cries in the day

and cries at night

and the sand clock pours

grains