Mother calls to her three times every day

 

inevitably while daughter's ice blue eyes

are found searching the sea for the first sign

that the Siberian winter is finally ending.

 

She hates the nervous laughter that escapes her

when furtive strangers come too close and she's

sure that her thousand yard stare has betrayed her.

 

But, in silence her knowledge betrays all hope,

though the days are once again getting longer,

that her father's arms can ever again embrace her.