TO THE EAST
(For W.G. Sebald)


Sent to the East
never returning back
no one spoke of it
not the least Party hack

At the Gulag or Treblinka
no one passes a smile
history lags like a beast
on these snowy miles

The barracks are gone
where sister died
as a motionless swan,
no room on the ocean side

We cannot find her
in so much airy snow
searching everywhere
by a crushed doomed crow

Feeling a bit weird
here on this earth
watching a bird,
what are we worth?

There is only death
without a kin of hope
even to wash
dousing potato skin soap,

We know the powers
of the ruling states
for God's sake,flowers
on a faceless fate?