Tundra

Sticks and stones had brought your bones
To this edge of the tundra
Where the river flows into ice
And trees like stakes they turn to horror

Herded into hard labour
While nomads were left to live
Tending their reindeer, only next door
Could speak of hard working bliss.

A world away, the trees felled for the

Suburbs of swimming pool dreams,
Or maybe an inbuilt sauna;

Others left,
For dreams they left;
No stove in bathhouse by long rail line
Samovar could be exchanged

For the long line comfort of shops,
Full of cereals;
Corn starch fullness -- oh my goodness;
And speech was always

Freely bought and sold,
Not packaged in 5 year plans of old.
But you stayed, a part of you always stayed

In that bone freezing cold tundra
You were saved from escaping
You returned in those gaping
Trains to quietly assume

The quiet life
On the other end of the empire.
We never spoke a word --
By that time, another train,

Never one minute late, took you.
Yet I too, carry a piece of 
The tundra within me.