SUDDENLY MARLENE

Suddenly Marlene Dietrich
came on the T.V.
and with her the memory
of those pre-war years
returns with re-runs
of sound out voices
and thoughts of the past
if only that Hitler
was not conceived
in imagination
becoming a reality show
if only Stalin did not have
more toes than a wolf
drawing us into the Gulag
and forests protected us
at grandmother's house
from the rape of a generation.