Full evergreens, branches heavy with snow,
hold the line between forest and field.
A wall of faceless wardens holding fast,
heedless of the cold and ice, fixated.
Ground untouched and peaceful,
only housing shadows cast by brave trees.
No tracks, no twigs or animals, perfection.
Amongst the trees too, no stirring.
Only still silence, only the field and wall
and thick forest packed with ice and snow,
waiting, as if holding in a breath.
Straining, attempting to shout warning
to the village, Montigny-le-Roi.
But frozen in a moment, captured in time,
just seconds before what emerges with a malice
that the wardens could not dream of holding back.
The Volksgrenadiers defile the wall and still field.
Heavy boots and rifles lay waste to its undisturbed surface,
and continue without recognition of the tranquility
of that moment captured in time.