Irena Sendler

from an Economist obituary

You are the lady within. I know you
more deeply than I could ever show you,
had we once met. A snarl of tenderness
raked the sky of the Nazi wilderness . . .

tore at the hearts of the Warsaw Resistance,
till there were fewer to keep a distance.
You conjured a pipeline for dreams to get into,
and spirited children out of the ghetto.

Drivers, priests, bureaucrats were enrolled,
the placing and timing you controlled,
new homes were found. An invincible nature
lived but to love (holding out under torture).

*

You are the mother I did not have,
the elder sister who treasured me,
the wife of my heart, she to my he,
the girl I take with me to the grave.