Timeless Sergiyevskoye – A Poem

When the day is done

When the house is near quiet

She switches on her lamp

And picks up the book

That contains her family’s story

And begins to read

She plays in the halls in the manor house

Next to the brick church

She plays Padrida with her family in the summer

And runs to the shimmering Oka River

She laughs in the winter-time

To help fend off the freezing snow and cold

She cries when the church is ripped down

And flees from the burning manor house

She sits by the letter-writer

Trapped in the Gulag

She looks for the light

In Russia’s darkest hours

She follows her family’s history

Collected together by her uncle

She finds the answers

To her long unasked questions

When the clock strikes twelve

When the only sound is the soft footfalls of her cats

She switched off her lamp

And puts down the book

That contains her family’s story

And plays the story over in her mind as she sleeps

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I'd like to explain this poem. I am currently reading Echoes of a Native Land - Two Centuries of a Russian Village. It was written by one of my family members, and is the story of my family's history in Russia. The village in which this takes place was called Sergiyevskoye, now Koltsovo. Yes, those are hard to pronounce, and I'm sorry that I can't explain how to. I myself do not speak Russian. I can pronounce it OK if I see the words written in English, but my mum had to help me pronounce Sergiyevskoye. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the poem.