Maryann Hurtt, 2012 PSP participant, Mark Jarmon workshop
Maryann Hurtt’s family came to the United States from Bohemia in the 1800s. She first heard of Charles University when she was a little girl. Being able to study and write at the university through the Prague Summer program was an experience that has filled her with a lifetime of inspiration. Since retiring as a hospice nurse four years ago, she has been traveling, writing, reading, and learning everything she can about writing. Aldrich Press published her chapbook, River, in 2016. Maryann’s 99 year old father continues to help her with Czech language skills and Lidice will haunt her the rest of her days.
Brother
Lidice, a village in central Bohemia, was razed on June 10, 1942 during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia following Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heyrich’s assassination. One hundred seventy three Lidice men were shot. Children were taken from mothers and either gassed or sent for “re-education” in Germany. The women were sent to Ravensbruck concentration camp. In 1955, a “Garden of Peace & Friendship” was opened. Thousands of rose bushes from around the world have been planted.
ruins and photos and ghosts
haunt the place
they will not be forgotten
in another time
the boy’s face could be my brother
I believe now
he still is
the woman at the museum
tells me
before you leave, go
to the garden
remember
a rose
is thorn and flower
stop your tears
carry on