On a plateau, with little volcanic mountains, a muddy river, dangerous when the snow melts, a fertile valley, cattle breeders, and a music academy, a tall, handsome, agile people, with straight black hair and an enterprising spirit, lived peaceably. Though there had never been hatred between the races, after a quarrel over local matters, massacres came. Men, women, & children robbed & deported—an evacuation, they called it. Heads impaled on branches. Mounds of corpses, like grim flowers knotted together. A passing ship transported a few to a distant port, where Mother was born, though now she, too, has vanished into the universe, and the cold browns the weeping cherry, vivid red mixed with blue.