Pig-tails

they dragged her out by her hair              
a twiggy girl of fourteen              
they planned to rape her but one said                
“that Jew is too skinny”                
                 
that would not be                  
the only horror                  
she would face         
                 
bombs overhead                  
hiding under mattress                  
on basement floor               
soldiers came to ransack                
                 
tearing the flesh
of her fingers                
with her teeth  
to prevent                
scream escaping                  
 
heavy boots above                
                 
 
her beneath.                  
                 
they did not
find her this time                
but next time  . . .                       
                 
Her father threw out all the wine                
of the vineyard                  
he didn’t want drunk soldiers                
near little girls                  
                 
They took their gold                
rings and watches                
and axed their grand piano              
for firewood                
                 
she was now sixteen                
wearing childish pigtails                
and ragged clothes to avoid                
hungry eyes                  
                 
six soldiers cornered her                  
and prepared to take her together                  
but an officer stopped them                
“she is a little girl —                
                 
look at her pigtails.”                
                 
that would not be                
the only horror                
she would face             
                 
her father in political prison                
an agriculture professor                
cleverness is dangerous                  
to corrupt governments                  
                 
her mother interrogated                
for months at a time                
returned very pale                
her girl in pigtails, now nineteen                
                 
she came to America                  
to forget                  
                 
that would not be                  
the only horror                  
she would face                
                 
and she didn’t face these memories                
until she told her granddaughter —                
                 
                 
                 
me.