“Now it’s coming, the Pohjola boat / Vessel with a hundred oarlocks

on the thwarts a hundred rowers /  and a hundred idle sitters” Kalevala, Runo 43

GERMAN SOLDIER AT MMA

A Poem by Jane Piirto

“Finland? Suomi?”

“I fought alongside

the Finns in World War II

on the Leningrad march together.”

He is old, thin, stooped.

We view an exhibit of Byzantine art

across a small table

at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“No, I haven’t seen the Byzantine cathedrals

in Venice but in Helsinki.

700 years of Swedish rule

with 100 years of Russian rule.

“No thing made them a nation

but their language and their poetry.”

“It was hell. He was crazy.

Hitler was crazy.”

“I had on a uniform this weight.”

He pulls on his August suit

very light tan polyester.

I begin to imagine how it was.

“They had already fought

against the Russians.”

“I saw men take off their boots

and their toes came off.

“If I hadn’t been so young

if I were 28 instead of 18

I would have frozen and died.

Hitler was crazy.”

II.

The Finns fought the Winter War,

the war no one knows

a few years before, in 1939.

Their Battle of Marathon.

Lined up the tanks on single lane roads

tossed Molotov cocktails in.

Improbable, the people.

Impossible, the events.

The war nobody wanted,

even Stalin.

Russia demanded Honko

 and then Torka.

Finns kept saying no.

Mannerheim had just 9 divisions

barely 12,000 men.

Molotov, 22 divisions, 22,000 men.

An 800 mile border to defend.

Russia had 2,000 tanks,

solving “The Finnish Question”

with force of tanks.

Finland had 2 months of ammunition

not much artillery

just a few tanks

a few good men.

“It was as if the U.S. declared war

on Massachusetts and the people

of Massachusetts held the U.S.

In the Berkshires for 3 ½ months.”

Suomasalmi, a town of 300 people

met them on December 6.

Stalin sent 2 divisions.

The Finns evacuated the town

burned down their homes behind them

defended their border, juntaranta.

Watched the invaders come

over long, narrow roads.

Colonel Silansuo with 800 men

2 machine gun groups on the salmi itself

2 more companies at the head of the road

2 more groups to stop the machinery

poured water and gas on them,

“Molotov cocktails.”

Skied at night,

shot the cold Russians

when they came out to pee.

Spread them out for ten miles

stopped the 44^th motorized

men from Moscow

the regulars

with their old rifles.

Stopped them with skis

and nationalism.

Defend Suma, defend Sotova.

4,000 volunteers came

300 Americans but no U.S. funds,

stood them off for almost 4 winter months

a 20^th century battle for the Sampo.

Now for these 60 years

the fierce defenders

lay alone

in vast Finnish cemeteries

under statues of soldiers

blue and white crossed flags

the mourning lays

sung by their women.

A generation of women without men.

Now the old women join

their dead young men

their next life in Tuonela’s whirlpool.