for grandma

My grandmother raised me since 
I was two weeks old.
These poems I wrote for her...
Its about her youth...
I wrote in both English and Russian,
She likes it a lot, something else she is writing...


June 22, 1941,
 Beautiful day, right after my Birthday.
 When I thought, I will have it all.
 Someone screaming:
 War, war, turn on the radio.
 4 pm, nothing will be the same again.
 Women crying:
 Oh, my God, oh, my God!
 Sons, why do you have to go!?
 Men getting ready without a word,
 Stone faces: we will be back with victory.
 Took only ten minutes to make huge lines near the school:
 All men from 18 to 55 years old,
 Women, nurses and doctors
 Must go immediately...
 The next day radios working nonstop,
 Our leader had the first talk:
 Brothers and sisters we will together stay
 And face our enemy.
 Everyone is getting ready,
 All prepared:
 Food, milk, bread, clothes...


The first two years were the hardest one.
 One day from Moscow,
 Two days from bombs and thanks,
 We stood up strong.
 All young and most of old men were gone,
 Not eighteen still had to go:
 The enemies didn't blew up our cities to say "hello".
 I remember my mother slapped my face first time:
 Ira, don't cry. Keep your tears for our victory.
 My father was working day and night,
 We didn't know he almost didn't eat,
 Kept the bread for me.
 Mother could only ask,
 When she was back from working on the farm:
 If any letters from my brother, what's new,
 If I ate and did my homework.
 Women felt sorry for us, girls,
 No matter what, we had to go to school.
 I saw women pulling metal pieces,
 Digging the dry land,
 Our army needed bread,
 Twice a months a big truck,
 What can you give to our victory,
 We gave everything.
 No way we would let our men go down,
 If we were standing behind.
 We believed...




The country was not the government,
 Was not just the army,
 The country were people,
 Who in majority,
 Did not except the defeat.
 Who said together after all;
 We would give it all.
 In first hours thousands of men left homes,
 Women smiled, cried,
 We will be waiting here,
 Or we go with you.
 Our children, looking at the windows, believed:
My father will be back....




When my grandmother was small,
 She thought her parents didn't love her much at all.
 Because she was a girl.
 And her brother could do what he wanted,
 They would fight and mother was always on the brother's side:
 He is a boy, he is right.
 Then the Second World War started.
 Her three uncles and two aunts went the very first day,
 Summer, was summer again...
 In less than a months papers: you will never see them at all.
 Now, winter, her brother turn, he was almost eighteen years old.
 All the young girl knew, she wants him back home and there is no chance if he wouldn't be back.
 When many people gave up, when mothers stopped to believe and wait,
 All she repeated: we will win, he will be back.
 It was not two counties war any more,
 It was her war too.
 And guess how won?
 An old ugly witch war or
 A beautiful young girl?
 The girl who could see the places she had never been,
 Who could see faces, who could feel,
 Who could stop a machine gun,
 And change the direction of an enemy tank.
 The girl who stood up against the war and said only one time:
 "He is mine, don't even try".
 From an old village far away,
 She brought her brother home back.
 Everyone was surprised,
 Who can go to the war and never be touched once?
 He has medals, he is parents pride.
 They did not know,
 The sister wanted her brother only to be alive,
 More than anything in the world.
 It wasn't important if they will ever fight or
 Who love who more.
 She wanted him be at home.


I asked old soldier:
 Were you afraid at least one time?
 He said: yes, of course, I won't lie.
 I didn't know what's next,
 What to expect.
 In times when fear was stopping me,
 I closed my eyes, and voice inside,
 Would push me forward:
 It's for the future, you will be fine;
 Go, make one step, then one more,
 And more, and more...
 Now, see, I am with you at home.



After the war we rebuilt our cities,
 Rebuilt our land, we started all over,
 We started again, day after day, brick after brick, not just for us,
 Who made it, walked through.
 We did it for people,
 Who covered us, stood up in frond,
 And said: no way I let you touch my sons and my daughters, my home, my peace.
 We rebuilt our land for our children, far away chubby grandkids to walk and enjoy, love, live, be strong.
 We are the one who can do it all...

The Victory day,
 Music on the radio everywhere!
 The biggest thought we, women, had,
 The war is over and our men will be back.
 Thin, sick, tired, with grey hair,
 But alive!
 Thank you, God,
 They returned home alive...

For us winning the war was
 Only matter of time.
 We knew, from day one,
 From the moment we heard the news on radios:
 Nothing ever will stop us.
 We will win, stepping every day
 Closer to the victory.
 Because the last time we lost any war
 Was eleven century.
 Our King at that time,
 Who after won any way said:
 Don't go with swords against our people.



The war made us stronger,
 Made us fight back harder and harder
 Every single day more and more.
 We would wake up every morning,
 Like warriors.
 What else can we do
 To bring our men and women home?
 Even children, young partisans,
 Said "no" to our enemy.
 We repeated, standing on the farms, factories,
 Building roads, again and again:
 We can, we can, we can!
 Without doubt our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters,
 Grandparents, uncles and aunts, cousins
 Will be back home.
 War was not a joke, not slap in the face
 It was about life.
 And we were not ever give it up.
 It took four years, but we did it.
 We brought victory to our home!

February 1942,
 Our army officers walked in school.
 We can see trough the window.
 The teacher leaves,
 Her son in Grade 12.
 My brother's class and another one
 Called together for a meeting,
 All the girls were told to leave the room.
 No school...

The first happiest day at that war
 Was when my cousin, a nurse,
 Got home for 3 days.
 She had two medals,
 It was December, 1941.
 She had concussion in one battle,
 But was smiling like nothing happened:
 You know what,
 I have twenty seven brothers...
 We promised, if we get out after one time,
 We all will be sisters and brothers.
rs and sisters we will together stay
 And face our enemy.
 Everyone is getting ready,
 All prepared:
 Food, milk, bread, clothes...




Second World War,
Young Russian nurse dancing
On a mobile hospital floor.
Green uniform, medal and smile.
Like nothing to worry,
Nothing to cry.

Everyone’s laughing, no sirens.
Old doctor quietly said:
Now I know,
We always will win.
For girls like this we will stay until the end.
We will stay until the end.

The first winter battle,
Fire and ice,
Bombs, flying grenades, fast dirty tanks.
No time to worry,
No time to cry.
Go under fire,
Save life after life.
Red captain, can’t see the face,
Looked at her eyes and
Wiped all burned hands:
For girls like this
We will stay until the end.
We will stay until the end.

1945, near Berlin,
Surrounded house,
Only one our soldier,
Out of hundred survived.
He gives the nurse gun:
Girl, you can ran,
Beg them, believe,
You are young, you have to live.
Leave me here,
I don’t think I’ll make it anyway.
Take the gun, do what I say.

What the nurse said,
How she smiled:
I am not leaving you,
The war will end.
And we,
We will stay until the end,
We will stay until the end.

My brother wrote a letter from the front line.
 It was 1945, May 9,
 The most beautiful day:
 My dear people,
 You are always the one here with me.
 I know when I am alone,
 You are behind and make me feel strong.
 We had terrible fights,
 Even we thought it might be the end,
 We stood, we went again and again.
  No step back, never, no way.
 Every day, morning, night.
 We would go forward again and again,
 Looking up, " the victory" men.
 We did it! We win!
 




My grandmother's brother said
 Only one time he felt giving up during the war.
 1942, new year,
 Our army was not winning,
 Was not getting a chance,
 No left friends,
 Standing like wall near the capital.
 Only one of thousand could survive after each fight.
 Then propaganda took a new way.
 All the solders and general were told the same day:
 Think what would happen if we loose now,
 What would happen to our women and children.
 They are working day at night, factories, hospitals, 
collective farms, cutting forest, building train roads,
 Giving us their blood like cows give milk,
 Sending you last piece of bread.
 Not giving up.
 What would happen to them.
 Think about our women here,
 Who go after you in each fight,
 Hoping only to be on time.
 You soldiers, you have guns, bombs, tanks,
 The nurses, doctors have only medical bags.
 Think again what would happen to them...
 It was the first day of our victory.