WOLA DISTRICT, SEPTEMBER 1939

In a two-room apartment near Kino Bajka on UL. Żelazna:

Hard rye and yellow onion on a board by the stove.

The child sleeps in a felted basket by the fire.

A woman’s face, drawn in candlelight by a smoky mirror:

Coal-dark hair, fingers like moth wings over the darning egg at her lap.

The child coughs; she rises, wearing her husband’s house shoes, too large for her feet.

She has had no word from him, though his name lies down with her in sleep.

Six shattered panes on each casement window: eighteen rectangles.

Blackout. Ghost dogs of air sirens bay down the alleys, dopplering –