Solidarity

for A.H.Я.

I returned to Siberia
the village of my childhood
my aging relatives
wrinkled and sick
in multiple ways
an ambulance for my uncle
the day after Christmas.

My husband and I
went walking –
forty-five below –
avoiding streets
where wolf packs
snap up neighbors’ dogs.
The tip of his nose
turned white so
we had to go back.

They said
there would be
no helicopters
the first two weeks
of January
so I bribed a driver
to get us out of there
ten hours in his car
down a frozen river
to the nearest station town.
Luckily when we passed
a car capsized
in the ice
my husband
was asleep.

Three days on the train and
we were in Moscow.
Liberated! I am Russian,
but not solely. My roots
are Ukraine and Romania.
I do not believe
in Mother Russia
who eats her neighbors
and exiles their children.

When we came home
to our apartment
in Athens it was fifteen
celsius. I went to the beach
three days in a row to lie
in the sun. That was two weeks
ago and I have been sick
ever since. I am five feet tall
thin as a rail. I speak seven languages.
I have a daughter and a dog.
My name is Anna.
What’s yours?