BARBAROSSA
After they found their fifteen comrades
Half stripped in the frozen grass
With noses, eyes and genitals
All cut away, the captain, full
Of righteous indignation, ordered
Every farm and village burned
And any villager shot on sight.
That afternoon a foot patrol
Fired on a sleigh and three dark figures
Slumped from it. They were all plumped up
In blankets, shawls and overcoats
And so of indeterminate sex.
