anastasia's secret

it's hard to believe that
you were 17 when it happened.

but what did happen, anastasia?
eugenia smith,
anna anderson?

was it 1918 or the 1990s?
now your mother's bones lie
not in the forest but
in a box on someone's desk,
1991, disturbed from slumber.

what was that like, anastasia?
mid-july 1918,
the flash of a photograph that
sped as bullets into your chest.