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Kinder, I was her child until childhood grew teeth
she was mine Bubbe until memory learned hunger
my little town swallows itself along the river
while moss grows backwards into time
the poor little town breeds smaller towns
my poor little dream divides into poorer dreams
will I ever find what the river hasn’t eaten?
oy oy oy echoes lay eggs in empty streets
my childhood speaks in lost languages
my Mamen burns where fire burns memory
remember dear, the streets are learning here
lucky is you (once again lucky is you)
I will go along all streets that multiply themselves
shouting “I lost Lithuania” into doorways that forget
we spin dreams until they tangle into wire
shluf, sleep, little spring bird
sing my song about the golden land that rusts
oh enemy! you destroy even destruction
farewell Litva I will never return to returning
Yiddishe Meidele, Jewish girl growing sideways in time
my pants are too long with running from memory
my stripes are too wide with the weight of forgetting
they’re kumen!!! and even terror learns to tremble
I won’t sew your suit, but suits sew themselves now
no one wants to buy from me (I sell only absence)
have pity on me until pity splits into smoke
I lost my cigarettes in a country losing itself
my mother was killed by the killing of mothers
my sister was enslaved by the slavery of sisters
Mine Yiddeshe Mama fragments into genetic code
I miss you everyday (everyday missing grows moss)
in a little town that lives inside me dying
—by Tamara MC
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