for Susanna

How young we were then
you only eleven
what were our parents thinking
sending you off to classes
in a language you had no way
of understanding
but still you had a friend
Tanya and now
after some sixty years
you send me a photo
the two of you smiling
and a reminiscence from that time
read aloud on youtube
telling of the love
you two girls shared
both orphaned in a way
she with no father
and an alcoholic mother
living in a poor apartment
you with what our father
would call every opportunity
yet somehow feeling unseen
as I did also
in our family
so you remember the dark stairway
up to Tanya's apartment
and the communal soup
cooking in the corridor
and the piano in the corner
and the heartfelt reality
of Tanya's love