Happiness is being alive is a national saying.

Suitcases sculpture outside the museum.

Estonia declared independence

for the second time in a century

 

when the old Soviet Union wasn’t looking.

Thirty-thousand taken from their homes,

sent to Siberia in cattle trucks

in 1941 and 1949.

 

One of the last heathen lands in Europe,

now one of the most secular,

beset by invasions, occupations,

deportations, stag weekends,

 

cruise tourists. Estonians pride

themselves on their sarcastic

sense of humour, and

their Baltic sprats and herrings.