Ukraine

The nesting dolls
tell of your young girls,
growing
up in the war, to find
marriage, children
and often widowhood, after.

Tales of generations,
inside each other,
fit to perfection.

The perfection of Hugo,
Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy-
said to the names of Anna Kerenina
and Three Brothers Karamazov.

Why did I spend money on your oil,
when I had no food to eat,

O ye widows of Jerusalem,

Aliyah is come.

I want to buy you a ticket

so you will be free.

Leaving on a jet plane,

don't know when you should

go back again.

The bear is not so grand

when you are a Jew in the land.