"Polya, please read me a story !"
Little Pyotr looked up at her as she pulled the wool blanket up over his frail shoulders.
"You know, the one about Rahil and the wolf !"
Polina smiled,
Her littlest brother never tired of hearing the tale of how Rahil ("little lamb"),
Their enormous white, hairy black-faced Ovcharka sheepdog
Had rescued her and Mama from a wolf one day,
When they went to gather blueberries.
Mama had held onto her tightly, so tightly !
When Rahil bit into the wolf's neck,
Shaking it like one of Polina's ragdolls.
Stroking Petya's hair gently as he snored away
She could go on now.
For even with the uncertainty of their next meal,
Now that Papa and Cyprian had rode off to war
With the fear, the not-knowing
With the wolves and the bears at the back door,
If your baby brother slept safe at night
Knowing you would always protect him,
It had been a good day
To be a Cossack girl !
YOU ARE READING
Kobylka: a day in the life of a Cossack girl
PoetryA day in the life of a young woman and her three brothers growing up in a Cossack village, twenty years before the Russian Revolution.
