Svetlana
by Margaret Theresa Carney

 
Someone in London said
“you are Svetlana.”
Years on she decodes the radio messages ,
She finds a strange building
On the edge of town
Everything is secret, closed as a coffin.
Svetlana is from a poor farmhouse
Eastern Europe, taken as a child
The management Union
Places her in Britain.
Her eyes regard her pretended family –
The false mother
Stares at Svetlana in her crib –
She learns all about society
Trained by the tapes
To not react
Even when the Japanese
Shoot lasers from a helicopter.
The metal insects buzz at night
Walking down the beach at 2 am.
The security cameras record
And Svetlana
Stares at a dark pink brick wall,
Perhaps the war did not end.
Marylin Monroe’s ghost appears,
It is crying;
“I was intelligent too” –
Marylin tells her,
Svetlana is quite shocked,
Keeping her counsel
She carefully applies make-up.