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| A nurse in Nazi Germany |
No name, face alone,
Fixed within a tiny square,
Phantom-frail, ever-framed
By nurse’s headdress,
Cross falling forward.
Marbled, monochrome,
Flattened, unflustered,
Compressed and conformed,
Her eyes conceal soul.
Yet the bone and blood of her,
The Germanness of her,
The medical white-aproned starch of her
Saved his life, a Pole,
At risk of her own.
He escaped on discharge,
Paper person pocketed
Flimsy as a fairy-wing.
Did love skulk through the
Brain-splattered, blood-flavoured,
Lymph-spilled, limb-wracked
Shrieking wreckage of war,
Of which he was ashamed?
He must find Polish forces –
Did she know? Faded yet full-on,
The photo does its utmost
To frame her as a follower -
Yet I am here because
She gave him penicillin.
She stole herself, breath, bone
And blood, to fight fear of
Firing squads, to risk herself,
Her beating heart, her living soul
For love.
3 comments:
Just a ps to say that the photo above, isn't the actual picture, which I don't have. Liz found this one of a 1940s German nurse. The photo I describe had a different headdress, across the forehead and down each side, which probably indicated a higher rank. It had gone through the rest of the conflict, in Italy and then through Polish Resettlement camps, and lived in among family photos. It was almost like an ID photo and almost had a propaganda air....her eyes, as the poem says, gave away nothing.
I am sure the lady above acquitted herself as bravely as the rest. The German nurses often worked close to the battlefields, but they all knew Hitlers philosophy: the Reich could only succeed if every Pole, man , woman and child, were eliminated.
I love that the nurse who saved my dad rose above that.
Sorry not to have commented on your beautiful poem Irena, life takes over sometimes. . I hadn’t realised it was not the original photo but it doesn’t matter. I loved how you expressed her bravery and fearlessness in a way that saved your dad’s life. John read it too and thought it very thought- provoking.
Thankyou so much, both of you! I really appreciate that.
I would love to find the original picture again. I may do if I have time to search through the photos sometime when we visit Essex.
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