Watan / Nation / Homeland

"Why didn't you speak in German?"
Her son is annoyed.

Martha tried for years
to hold her tongue just right
so she could catch the 'ain.

Her blonde hair went gray
and wrinkles covered over her paleness.
Finally, she can pass as one of them.

She would probably agree, though she doesn't know,
that it is only because she promised
to be one with John, in life as in death.

She will take this rebuke from her son,
rather than explain.

Martha does not mind waiting a few minutes - even hours -
with her son and grand-daughters,
outside the door to the embassy,
of what was once her Heimland.