Hard Winter

We travelled through burnt fields shells of farmsteads

Windows broken eyes roofs buckled bent

By men's relentless ravage

Hoping to rest sleep beneath a blanket

Not the unforgiving sky's blade undulled

Its savage cuts new graved memories laid

Sun frozen days a puddle of grey

We huddle in our frost struck tent

Wrapped in shawls their weave the dark space

Between God's dead stars heaven’s doorways

The last of the wood cold ash in the stove

Adam and Ehva close winged to my sides

We hear them approaching heels heavy

Rifles scraping through crusted snow asking for cream

The canvas shakes             my children fold are folded

Into me lapped in the scent of lavender

                  Dreaming of clear skies and oblique sunsets

                  Paradise lost