Last Moments of the Romanov Family by Tessa Sagner

Four girls went into a room a very long time ago and none of them left.

They lived in the partings of each other’s hair.

They were not real and were not seen in color to any strangers. Their braids browned and blonded and their lips pinked for nobody in particular. Their secret Kodak smiles were upside down and fuzzy-- handling of the tools still clumsy. Needed work.

Diamonds sewn into their clothes delay the inevitable. The whole ordeal is arduous and the men are molested by the time it takes for young women to give up their games.

“The wall had been torn apart in search of bullets and other evidence by investigators in 1919.” Mauser C96, Colt M1911. Little girls only know mice and horses and even then only in picture books. They can’t take it with them when they go. Their luggage is stored somewhere else.